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Lot Essay
Depicted in this radiant portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence is Lady Valletort, née Sophia Hobart (1768-1806). The third daughter of the 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire, she married Richard, Viscount Valletort, in 1789. Garlick suggests that this portrait dates to the following year, at which time Lawrence also painted her husband (see Garlick op. cit., p. 275, no. 783). The couple lived in the stately Mount Edgcumbe House in Cornwall on the Rame peninsula. In 1842, William Henry Bartlett described Edgcumbe's French flower garden, writing that it was "planted with the most beautiful shrubs and flowers, and was the favourite retreat of Sophia, Countess of Mount Edgecumbe, who died in 1806, and to whose memory a cenotaph, consisting of an urn and a tablet, is erected within its bounds" (W.H. Bartlett, The ports, harbours, watering-places, and coast scenery of Great Britain, London, 1842, p. 146). An inscription on the urn memorializes Lady Valletort, "whose taste embellished, whose presence added charms, to these retreats" (see Rogers, loc. cit.). In this portrait, Lady Valletort, presented with flushed cheeks before a backdrop of dense foliage, appears feminine in a loose white dress with flushed cheeks, while the inclusion of a gold-tasseled belt and decorated head-piece lend her an exotic air.
Lawrence painted this portrait at a time when his fledgling career was accelerating at a rapid rate. A child prodigy, he moved to London in 1787 and began studying at the Royal Academy Schools. In 1789 he sent to the Royal Academy exhibition a single portrait in oil, the full-length Viscountess Cremorne (Tate Gallery, London, inv. T05466), which led to major commissions such as his full-length portraits of Queen Charlotte (National Gallery, London, inv. NG4257) and the dazzling Miss Elizabeth Farren (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. 50.135.5). In 1790, Lawrence exhibited these works at the Royal Academy to great acclaim, and thus painted Lady Valletort at a moment when he was gaining recognition as a major emerging talent of his generation. On seeing the 1790 exhibition, Sir Joshua Reynolds complimented Lawrence: 'In you, sir, the world will expect to see accomplished all that I have failed to achieve' (W. T. Whitley. Artists and Their Friends in England, 1700-1799, London, 1928, II, pp. 129-131).
Lawrence painted this portrait at a time when his fledgling career was accelerating at a rapid rate. A child prodigy, he moved to London in 1787 and began studying at the Royal Academy Schools. In 1789 he sent to the Royal Academy exhibition a single portrait in oil, the full-length Viscountess Cremorne (Tate Gallery, London, inv. T05466), which led to major commissions such as his full-length portraits of Queen Charlotte (National Gallery, London, inv. NG4257) and the dazzling Miss Elizabeth Farren (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. 50.135.5). In 1790, Lawrence exhibited these works at the Royal Academy to great acclaim, and thus painted Lady Valletort at a moment when he was gaining recognition as a major emerging talent of his generation. On seeing the 1790 exhibition, Sir Joshua Reynolds complimented Lawrence: 'In you, sir, the world will expect to see accomplished all that I have failed to achieve' (W. T. Whitley. Artists and Their Friends in England, 1700-1799, London, 1928, II, pp. 129-131).