George Romney

A Lady in a Brown Dress: ‘The Parson’s Daughter’

c.1785

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In Tate Britain

Walk Through British Art: 1780

Free entry

Artist: George Romney 1734–1802
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 648 × 648 mm
frame: 839 × 841 × 88 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased 1879
Reference: N01068

Display caption

This portrait was originally exhibited as 'A Lady in a Brown Dress' but became known as 'The Parson's Daughter' in the later nineteenth century, when there was a fashion for giving such imaginative titles to portraits of anonymous sitters. The picture is considered to be an actual portrait rather than a 'fancy-piece', although the identity of the sitter is not known. A pencil sketch of the same subject is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Romney was one of the most successful fashionable portrait painters of his time and a close rival of Reynolds and Gainsborough. His female portraits were particularly admired for their embodiment of the womanly virtues of chastity, simplicity and grace.

Gallery label, September 2004

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