Elizabeth Gunning, Duchess of Hamilton and Duchess of Argyll (1734 – 1790) (after Katherine Read)

Another of Rebecca Dulcibella Orpen's portrait copies at Baddesley Clinton, this 1886 work reproduces an 18th-century portrait of Elizabeth Gunning — one of the most celebrated beauties of Georgian England, who married first the Duke of Hamilton and then the Duke of Argyll. Gunning was a subject of enormous social interest in her time, her marriages representing an unprecedented ascent for two sisters from modest Irish gentry origins. The portrait was copied after a work attributed to Katherine Read, and Orpen's version preserves this important historical image for the Baddesley Clinton collection.

Orpen adapts her technique to the 18th-century original — a softer, more delicate handling than her more direct Victorian portraits. The work captures the elegance and grace of the 18th-century portrait tradition while filtered through a Victorian artist's interpretation, resulting in a work that occupies an interesting space between historical reproduction and original interpretation.