Portrait of Elizabeth, Countess of Ancrum, Joshua Reynolds

Exhibition Label: "Corpus," Apr-2012, Kris Ercums This portrait of Elizabeth, Countess of Ancrum, demonstrates a longstanding tradition in England for portraiture to reveal power, authority, and achievements. While the artist, Sir Joshua Reynolds, painted many images for public display, he most likely created this portrait for a private audience. The tightly cropped composition is missing the classical background of grand portraiture, nor does it provide clues to her environment. During the 1780s, Reynolds dominated the British portraiture market alongside artist Thomas Gainsborough. Both artists primarily painted the so-called “upper-crust” of society. Throughout her life, the Countess, a well-known figure in Scottish society, commissioned several portraits by Reynolds; however, this particular portrait is atypical due to its intimate nature. Archive Label 2003: Joshua Reynolds returned from Italy in 1752 to set up a studio in London, where he dominated British art for forty years, applying the discoveries of the Old Masters to images of British aristocrats. Reynolds desired to be a history painter, but financial success lay with portraiture. Reynolds consequently applied considerable intellect and knowledge of theory to producing imaginative and convincing character likenesses, championing an elevated portrait style that required formal poses and elegantly arranged drapery evocative of history or drama. Reynolds’s portrait of Elizabeth Fortescue, Countess of Ancrum and Marchioness of Lothian, is a relatively private and informal portrait of this well-known figure of Scottish society. The portrait uses dramatic lighting and strong color as a foil for the simple but elegant drapery. Reynolds viewed Gainsborough’s loosely defined portrait style as less dignified and inferior to his own practice of uniform attention to detail applied to a dignified pose that “looked like the effect of chance.”