Mary (Palmer), Lady Beauchamp-Proctor

Maker George Romney (British, 1734-1802)

SitterSitter: Mary (Palmer), Lady Beauchamp-Proctor (British, 1760 - 1848)

Collections

ClassificationsPAINTINGS

Dateca. 1782-1788 ?

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensions94 5/8 x 58 1/2 in. (240.3 x 148.6 cm.)

DescriptionStanding full-length, center, with crossed legs, turned three-quarters left and looking upwards; she rests her right elbow on a sculptured pedestal and her chin on her fingers. Her left hand hangs by her side, the fingers holding the end of her girdle. Dark, blue-gray eyes, delicate complexion, and chestnut hair, dressed high, showing the lobe of the ear, and bound with narrow, blue ribbons; curls fall on the shoulders. She wears a classic white robe, a gray-green scarf trimmed with gold braid and fastened at the breast with a small ruby brooch; white satin shoes, and a blue girdle fringed with gold. A rose drapery lies on the pedestal. In the right front, beyond her train, is a marble basin with water. Behind her head two large tree trunks; to right, autumn foliage, with glimpses of sky and hills. Two slender tree trunks high up on the left.

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Label TextResting her head on her hand in a gesture of contemplation, Lady Beauchamp-Proctor leans on a pillar ornamented with a relief sculpture. She is shown in a secluded grove, lost in melancholic thought. Her contemplative pose and the somber subject of the relief sculpture – a priest bowing piously over a smoking altar – allude to Melpomene, the Greek muse of tragedy, and refer to Lady Beauchamp-Proctor’s soulful character. Romney’s success at glamorizing the introspective mood of a rural setting and associating it with deep thought made him a portrait painter highly sought-after by fashionable men and women.

Status

On view

Object number26.86