Portrait of Elizabeth, Lady Webster

The sitter of this portrait, Elizabeth, Lady Webster, later Lady Holland (1770-1845), is depicted seated full-length, in a white dress and feathered hat, with her spaniel Pierrot, on a ‘chaise-longue,’ with a guitar, in an interior. Lady Holland was one of the most influential women of her generation and it was due in large measure to her forceful personality that their home in Kensington, Holland House, became the undisputed centre of the Whigs’ political and intellectual life until her husband’s death in 1840.

The painting is signed, inscribed and dated lower left: L. Gauffier. Flor. ce 1795.