Portrait Of Miss Hargreaves

Portrait of Miss Hargreaves, painted in 1775, is one of Dance's relatively few portraits of women outside the aristocratic or celebrity portrait market—most of his female subjects were either aristocratic wives, daughters of notable men, or women of significant social position. Miss Hargreaves's identity remains incompletely documented, but her portrait reflects Dance's ability to render middle-class female subjects with the same compositional discipline he applied to his more illustrious clients. Female portraiture in Georgian England occupied a slightly different social register than male portraiture—less about professional achievement than about appearance, family connection, and the visual embodiment of feminine virtue and social accomplishment.

Dance employs a softer palette and more delicate touch for this female portrait than in his male commissions, with the warm flesh tones and gentle lighting creating a feminine refinement appropriate to Georgian taste.