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Harriet (1722–1795), Viscountess Tracy
Thomas Gainsborough·1763
Historical Context
Gainsborough's Harriet, Viscountess Tracy of around 1763, depicting the wife of the same family that produced the John Tracy whose portrait Lawrence would paint decades later, belongs to his Bath period aristocratic female portraiture. The Viscountess's formal dress and composed bearing create the appropriate image of aristocratic female dignity, and Gainsborough's treatment demonstrates his mature Bath style's combination of formal grandeur and natural freshness.
Technical Analysis
Gainsborough renders the viscountess with the elegant warmth appropriate to her rank, the costume painted with increasing fluency and the face modelled with luminous, delicate tones. The treatment shows his growing confidence with aristocratic female sitters during the early Bath period.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the warm luminous quality of the mature Bath handling: the costume painted with increasing fluency and the face modeled with delicate, luminous tones.
- ◆Look at the growing confidence with aristocratic female sitters: the Viscountess Tracy receives the elegant warmth appropriate to her rank.
- ◆Observe the developing fluency and assurance: this portrait shows Gainsborough's confidence with aristocratic commissions growing through the early Bath period.
- ◆Find the portrait's place in his development: the growing mastery of the female aristocratic portrait that would culminate in the great full-length works of his London years.
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