Portrait of Anne, Countess of Chesterfield

Portrait of Anne, Countess of Chesterfield, painted in 1777 and held at the J. Paul Getty Museum, depicts a member of the aristocracy during Gainsborough’s most successful period in Bath. The countess’s fashionable dress and powdered hair are rendered with the feathery brushwork that became Gainsborough’s signature. The warm palette and atmospheric handling create an image of effortless aristocratic elegance. The painting demonstrates the qualities that made Gainsborough the preferred portraitist of fashionable women: his sensitivity to fabric, his ability to capture character within formal convention, and his gift for making portraiture appear natural and unforced.

Gainsborough's silvery palette and gossamer brushwork create an image of refined beauty, with the sitter's features softly modeled against an atmospheric landscape background. The fluid handling of silk and lace demonstrates his characteristic painterly virtuosity.