Portrait of Mrs. Lowndes-Stone

Gainsborough's Portrait of Mrs Lowndes-Stone of around 1758 depicts a member of the connected Lowndes and Stone families whose portrait belongs to his early Bath transition period. The portrait demonstrates his developing female portrait style — the emerging elegance and lightness replacing the more solid observation of his Suffolk manner — and Mrs Lowndes-Stone's composed bearing and formal dress create the standard image of Georgian gentlewoman's respectability.

The portrait shows Gainsborough's developing confidence with female sitters, the face painted with warm luminosity and the costume treated with increasing fluency. The handling is characteristic of the period just before his Bath breakthrough, when his style was rapidly maturing.