DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61291#0032
20
GAINSBOROUGH
after they left the nursery, though their parents
sat to him again and again in later life, and it
was a common saying that the painter was able to
make even old Queen Charlotte look beautiful.
The Duke and Duchess of Cumberland, whom
the artist had known at Bath when the Duke
was in disgrace with his royal brother, were also
amongst his sitters ; and he painted a charming
likeness of the Duchess of Gloucester, the lovely
Maria Waldegrave who, left a widow by her
first husband, Earl Waldegrave, married the
Duke of Gloucester in 1770, though the fact
was kept secret from the King till 1772.
Of the later portraits by Gainsborough, the
most celebrated are those of the Duchess of
Devonshire, the beautiful daughter of the first
Earl and Countess Spencer, whom he had painted
as a child of six years old at Bath. Even
then she gave promise of the loveliness which
made her the irresistible queen of society in
London, eclipsing all rivals, the most brilliant
of the gay throng who danced and played the
nights away at the Ladies’ Club, masqueraded
at the Pantheon or promenaded at Ranelagh.
It was when painting one of these later portraits,
exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1778, that
Gainsborough is reported to have said, “ Her
GAINSBOROUGH
after they left the nursery, though their parents
sat to him again and again in later life, and it
was a common saying that the painter was able to
make even old Queen Charlotte look beautiful.
The Duke and Duchess of Cumberland, whom
the artist had known at Bath when the Duke
was in disgrace with his royal brother, were also
amongst his sitters ; and he painted a charming
likeness of the Duchess of Gloucester, the lovely
Maria Waldegrave who, left a widow by her
first husband, Earl Waldegrave, married the
Duke of Gloucester in 1770, though the fact
was kept secret from the King till 1772.
Of the later portraits by Gainsborough, the
most celebrated are those of the Duchess of
Devonshire, the beautiful daughter of the first
Earl and Countess Spencer, whom he had painted
as a child of six years old at Bath. Even
then she gave promise of the loveliness which
made her the irresistible queen of society in
London, eclipsing all rivals, the most brilliant
of the gay throng who danced and played the
nights away at the Ladies’ Club, masqueraded
at the Pantheon or promenaded at Ranelagh.
It was when painting one of these later portraits,
exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1778, that
Gainsborough is reported to have said, “ Her