Maria, Lady Eardley

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Maria, Lady Eardley

Artist	Thomas Gainsborough
Year	c. 1766-1767
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	215 cm × 149 cm (85 in × 59 in)
Location	Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Maria, Lady Eardley is an oil on canvas by the English artist, Thomas Gainsborough, painted around the time of her marriage in 1766, according to British art historian, Ellis Waterhouse, in “Preliminary Check List of Portraits by Thomas Gainsborough,” The Volume of the Walpole Society 33 (1948 –1950): 34. It has been in the collections of Nationalmuseum in Stockholm since 1966.^[1]

The sitter is Maria Marow Gideon nee Wilmot, later Lady Eardley (1743–1794), the daughter of judge John Eardley Wilmot and his wife Sarah Rivett. In December, 1766 she married Sir Sampson Gideon, who became a member of Parliament soon after, and in 1789 was elevated to the Irish peerage to become Lord Eardley with a name from her father's maternal family.

She is just over 23 years of age in the painting. She is facing us wearing an elegant blue and white wrapping dress. She holds a flower in her hand and pearls glisten in her hair.

Gainsborough was one of England's leading 18th century portrait and landscape painters. He was a contemporary of Joshua Reynolds who painted the sitter before and after her marriage. Both specialized in portraits of the British aristocracy. This work is highly representative of Gainsborough's depictions of the British élite – they emerge in full figure from wooded landscapes. Grandeur was key, in content and form, and the portraits were usually full-length. He was also an accomplished landscape painter, and here the young woman is framed by the backdrop of a romantically leafy landscape garden. Gainsborough was a master at rendering aristocratic extravagance in a natural setting.

References

^ "Nationalmuseum: Thomas Gainsborough Maria, Lady Eardley (1743-1794)". www.nationalmuseum.se. Retrieved 18 December 2019.

v t e Thomas Gainsborough
Paintings	Cornard Wood, near Sudbury, Suffolk (1748) Wooded Landscape with a Herdsman Seated (1748) Mr and Mrs Andrews (c. 1750) The Painter's Daughters Chasing a Butterfly (1757) Gypsy works (including The Gipsies et al.) The Harvest Wagon (c. 1767) The Blue Boy (c. 1770) Maria, Lady Eardley (c. 1770) Portrait of David Garrick (1770) Woman in Blue (c. 1770–1780) Portrait of Mrs Mary Graham (1777) Portrait of Anne, Countess of Chesterfield (1777–78) Mrs Elizabeth Moody with her sons Samuel and Thomas (c. 1780) Portrait of Admiral Rodney (1783) Portrait of the Earl of Sandwich (1783) Mr and Mrs William Hallett (1785) The Market Cart (1786) Portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (1785–1787) Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1787) Cottage Door works (including The Woodcutter's Return et al.)
Museums	Gainsborough's House
Related	Humphrey Gainsborough (brother) Kitty (1945 film) Gainsborough (crater)

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