Portrait of Mrs. John Allnutt, née Eleanor Brandram, half-length

Eleanor Brandram (1789-1866) was the daughter of Samuel Brandram of Lee, Kent. A woman of exceptional beauty, in 1815 she became the second wife of John Allnutt (1773-1863) of Clapham common. The present portrait, which Kenneth Garlick dates to c. 1815, was likely commissioned around the time of their wedding (loc. cit., 1989). Eleanor has the vivacious countenance of a young woman in her mid-twenties. She gazes out at the viewer with confident, piercing blue eyes and a spray of flowers in her hair. Sir Thomas Lawrence lavished special attention of the depiction of Mrs. Allnutt’s crimson velvet dress, which appears all the more vivid set against the cool blues of the background. The artist would have been inclined to produce his best work, as her husband was a discerning art collector and patron of Lawrence as well as many of his contemporaries, including Constable and Turner. Years earlier, in 1797-1798 Lawrence captured Mr. Allnutt’s likeness in a full-length portrait with a horse in a landscape, which was sold at Christie’s, London, on 16 April 1982, lot 91 (fig. 1). A wine merchant by profession, John Allnutt lent large sums of money to Lawrence, secured on a policy of insurance: as much as £5,000 was, it is said, repaid at Lawrence's death.