Frances Molesworth, later Marchioness Camden

Maker Joshua Reynolds (British, 1723-1792)

SitterSitter: Frances Molesworth, later Marchioness Camden (British, 1760 - 1829)

ClassificationsPAINTINGS

Date1777

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensionscanvas: 55 3/4 × 45 in. (141.6 × 114.3 cm.) frame: 67 5/8 × 58 × 5 3/8 in. (171.8 × 147.3 × 13.7 cm.)

DescriptionThis painting portrays Frances Molesworth crouched on the ground with her body turned slightly right. Her left arm rests on a plinth covered with a gold drapery, while her right is in her lap. In the background are silver birches in autumn foliage and a blue cloudy sky.

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Status

On view

Label TextThis portrait was produced to commemorate a marriage that never happened: the seventeen-year-old Frances Molesworth sat for Reynolds in his studio during negotiations leading up to an engagement that she ultimately called off. The outdoor setting of the portrait was intended to reference the idea of her youthful innocence. Molesworth’s outfit evokes Turkish costumes that women also wore for masquerades, or courtly balls. The popularity of this dress reflects a wider obsession with and appropriation of Turkish culture, which to British audiences carried with it an exoticized and taboo sense of the sensual.

Bibliography

British paintings at the Huntington

Object number24.32