Portrait of Lady Louisa Fitzpatrick

Reynolds painted Lady Louisa Fitzpatrick around 1786, one of his late society portraits. By this date Reynolds's eyesight was failing — he would cease painting entirely in 1789 and die in 1792 — and some of his late works show less assurance in handling than his earlier masterpieces. Nevertheless, the composition and characterization demonstrate the authority that Reynolds maintained to the end of his active career. The portrait reflects the aristocratic patronage that sustained Reynolds throughout his forty-year career as Britain's foremost painter and first president of the Royal Academy.

The late portrait demonstrates Reynolds's mature command of female portraiture, with soft, luminous handling of the complexion and elegant pose. His experimental use of pigments, including fugitive colors that have sometimes deteriorated over time, is characteristic of his technically adventurous but occasionally unstable practice.