Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire
A woman with pale, smooth skin stands wearing a loosely draped, champagne-peach dress in this vertical portrait painting. Her body faces us but she turns her head to look down and off to our right with brown eyes. She has dark brows, an upturned nose, and her carnation-red lips are closed in a slight smile. Her ash-brown hair is loosely pulled up so it sweeps back from her face, while thick curls cascade down her neck and over her shoulders. Her long sleeved, floor-length dress is tied at her waist with a sage-green sash. Gossamer-white fabric drapes around her upper arms, and she holds the long ends in both hands. Her right elbow, to our left, rests on the high base of columns that rise behind her and off the top edge of the canvas. A rust-red curtain drapes down from the top of the painting, over the columns. To our right, beyond the columns, the landscape opens to a view of trees beneath a blue sky with white puffy clouds.
Details
- Palette
-
Select a color to find related artworks.
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- overall: 235.6 x 146.5 cm (92 3/4 x 57 11/16 in.) framed: 266.7 x 174.6 x 14.6 cm (105 x 68 3/4 x 5 3/4 in.)
- 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
7 tags
Subject Matter
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Individual Portrait Both · 99%
The image presents a single full-length sitter, and the catalog identifies the work as a portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire.
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Royalty and Aristocracy Metadata · 99%
The catalog identifies the sitter by the aristocratic title “Duchess of Devonshire.”
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Related to Fashion Both · 98%
The sitter’s elaborate hairstyle, floor-length dress, translucent drapery, and green sash are prominent in the image and are described in the catalog.
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Landscapes Both · 96%
A blue sky, clouds, trees, and wooded terrain occupy the right side of the composition; the catalog explicitly describes the background as a landscape.
Medium and Techniques
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Painting Both · 99%
The image is visibly a painted work, and the catalog classifies it as a painting.
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Oil Painting Metadata · 100%
The catalog specifies the medium as oil on canvas.
Time Periods
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18th Century Art Metadata · 100%
The catalog dates the work to 1783, placing it within the eighteenth century.
Source & rights
Thomas Gainsborough. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.