Susannah Edith, Lady Rowley

Susannah Edith, Lady Rowley from 1780 by John Hoppner depicts a woman of quality during the early part of the artist's career. The portrait reflects the conventions of Georgian female portraiture while demonstrating Hoppner's developing personal style. Hoppner's oil handling favored warm flesh tones over silvery grey half-shadows, producing an immediate vivacity that reflected his admiration for Reynolds and Gainsborough. Neoclassicism (c.1760-1830) revived the austere virtues of ancient Greece and Rome in reaction to Rococo frivolity.

The female portrait shows Hoppner developing his distinctive atmospheric approach, with the sitter rendered in increasingly fluid brushwork and warm tonal harmonies.