Bronze Age Gold from Wales

This sitter is presumed to be Miss Mary Jenkins (1731-1790), whose family owned Priston Manor, Somerset. Richard Wilson also painted her sister Elizabeth in 1750, the same year he began his Grand Tour of Italy. The setting shows an interior space, with Wilson’s use of light illuminating her youthful features as her outstretched hand holds flowers. She is dressed in a typical Van Dyck style, common with eighteenth-century portraitists, with her black gown, pink bows and white ermine collar.