Portrait of Mrs Luther

Reynolds painted Mrs. Luther around 1766, a society portrait now in the Birmingham Museums Trust. The painting demonstrates Reynolds's mature portrait style — the elegant composition, warm palette, and psychologically engaging characterization that made him the definitive British portraitist of his era. Reynolds painted hundreds of such society portraits, each one bringing the intellectual ambition of the Grand Style to the commercial requirements of fashionable likeness.

The portrait is rendered with experimental pigments that characterizes Joshua Reynolds's best work. Oil on canvas provides a rich ground for the subtle gradations of flesh tone and the textural contrasts between skin, fabric, and background that give the image its convincing presence.