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A pale-skinned woman wearing a long, rose-pink gown sits amid a lush landscape in this vertical portrait painting. The woman’s body is angled to our left, but she turns her head to look at us with green eyes under dark brows. She has a long, straight nose, smooth, flushed cheeks, and her carnation-pink lips are closed. Her long, curly, ash-brown hair is loosely pulled back in an emerald-green ribbon, but tendrils floating around her face seem to lift as in a breeze. A ponytail or thick tendril drapes over her far shoulder, almost reaching her waist. The low neckline of her gown is wrapped with translucent, gold cloth, and the elbow-length sleeves are gauzy white. The gown has a pale pink bodice and long, full skirt. Ribbons the same green as the one in her hair wrap around her waist and around the elbow we can see. She crosses her ankles so delicate, high-heeled, charcoal-gray slippers peek out from the bottom hem of her skirt. She sits on a gray boulder, her hands folded in her lap as she holds the ends of her translucent scarf. A tall tree grows along the right edge of the composition to arc up and over with olive-green and harvest-gold leaves. Beyond the woman, the land dips down to our left back into a tree-filled valley. Swipes of slate blue in the distance could be mountains. A short distance from us, to our left, one tree with a narrow, pale green canopy grows up against the sky. Behind that tree, yellow sunlight breaks through light blue, lavender-purple, and silver clouds that fill the rest of the sky. Parts of the scene are loosely painted with swirling, fluttering strokes, especially in the woman’s costume and the trees around her.

Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Thomas Gainsborough

A pale-skinned woman wearing a long, rose-pink gown sits amid a lush landscape in this vertical portrait painting. The woman’s body is angled to our left, but she turns her head to look at us with green eyes under dark brows. She has a long, straight nose, smooth, flushed cheeks, and her carnation-pink lips are closed. Her long, curly, ash-brown hair is loosely pulled back in an emerald-green ribbon, but tendrils floating around her face seem to lift as in a breeze. A ponytail or thick tendril drapes over her far shoulder, almost reaching her waist. The low neckline of her gown is wrapped with translucent, gold cloth, and the elbow-length sleeves are gauzy white. The gown has a pale pink bodice and long, full skirt. Ribbons the same green as the one in her hair wrap around her waist and around the elbow we can see. She crosses her ankles so delicate, high-heeled, charcoal-gray slippers peek out from the bottom hem of her skirt. She sits on a gray boulder, her hands folded in her lap as she holds the ends of her translucent scarf. A tall tree grows along the right edge of the composition to arc up and over with olive-green and harvest-gold leaves. Beyond the woman, the land dips down to our left back into a tree-filled valley. Swipes of slate blue in the distance could be mountains. A short distance from us, to our left, one tree with a narrow, pale green canopy grows up against the sky. Behind that tree, yellow sunlight breaks through light blue, lavender-purple, and silver clouds that fill the rest of the sky. Parts of the scene are loosely painted with swirling, fluttering strokes, especially in the woman’s costume and the trees around her.

Details
Palette

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Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 219.7 × 153.7 cm (86 1/2 × 60 1/2 in.) framed: 251.46 × 185.42 × 13.97 cm (99 × 73 × 5 1/2 in.) framed weight: 147 lb. (66.679 kg)
Department
CAB
Holding institution
National Gallery of Art
Image provider
national-gallery-of-art
License
CC0-1.0
Credit
Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Art Genome Taxonomy

11 tags

Subject Matter

  • Portrait Metadata · 100%

    The title identifies the work as a portrait of Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

  • Individual Portrait Both · 100%

    A single identified sitter occupies the composition, and the catalog title names her as Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

  • Eye Contact Visual · 98%

    The sitter turns her face toward the viewer and looks outward with a direct gaze.

  • Figures in Nature Both · 100%

    The sitter is shown outdoors among trees, foliage, distant terrain, and sky.

  • Landscapes Both · 100%

    The background is an expansive wooded landscape with distant hills or mountains and an open sky.

  • Flora Visual · 98%

    Branches, leaves, shrubs, and other vegetation surround the sitter and occupy much of the composition.

Visual Qualities

  • Dark Colors Visual · 95%

    Deep greens, browns, and shadowed earth tones dominate the wooded setting, contrasted with the lighter sky and pink dress.

Medium and Techniques

  • Painting Metadata · 100%

    The National Gallery of Art classifies the work as a painting.

  • Oil Painting Metadata · 100%

    The catalog specifies oil on canvas as the medium.

  • Large Brushstrokes/Loose Brushwork Visual · 97%

    Broad, fluid, visibly loose strokes are especially apparent in the foliage, sky, hair, and flowing costume.

Time Periods

  • 18th Century Art Metadata · 100%

    The work is dated 1785–1787, within the eighteenth century.

Source & rights

Thomas Gainsborough. Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Catalog record ↗ Image source ↗ Image license ↗ Image-use terms ↗ Catalog metadata terms ↗

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