Study of a Lady
by GAINSBOROUGH, Thomas, Black chalk and stump heightened with white, 485 x 312 mm
This drawing forms part of a group of five full-length studies, each depicting beautifully dressed woman in a rural setting. Two of these drawings are in the British Museum, London, one is in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, while the fourth is now in the Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Thomas Gainsborough probably made these drawings as studies for The Richmond Water-Walk, a painting commissioned by King George III of England that was apparently never executed.