Mrs Grimston
Artist
Sir Joshua Reynolds
(Plymouth, England, 1723 - 1792)
Date1756
Mediumoil on canvas
ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings
DimensionsSight Size: 73.8 x 61cm
Frame - Height: c. 104 cm, Width: 87 cm, Depth: 9 cm
Frame - Height: c. 104 cm, Width: 87 cm, Depth: 9 cm
AcquisitionOn loan from a Private Collection.
CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0
LocationOn Display - Gallery 18
Object numberABDAG014290
About MeSir Joshua Reynolds was an English portrait painter who dominated English artistic and polite society in the middle and late 18th century. He attempted to steer British painting away from the anecdotal and towards a more formal 'Grand Style' favoured on the Continent. In 1768 he became the first President of the newly founded Royal Academy in London.This portrait of Mrs Grimston was painted in 1756. Although painted in the style of the "Grand Manner" popular on the Continent, it remains a subtle depiction of the sitter. Reynolds was renowned for his sympathetic treatment of women and children in his portraits. Mrs Grimston was married to John Grimston, a gentleman of Yorkshire. She is painted wearing a white silk gown decorated with blue bows over a very pale blue undergown which is decorated with lace. She wears a thin black choker around her neck and feathers in her dark hair. This portrait was probably painted at the time of the sitter's wedding. Just two years later, most probably as the result of complications during childbirth, Mrs Grimston died. She was just twenty six years old.
More About Me
The choker necklace, as seen on Mrs Grimston here, can be traced back to Ancient Egyptian society where jewellery was used to protect the most vulnerable parts of the body.
Exhibitions
Sir Henry Raeburn
Sir James Jebusa Shannon
Samuel William Reynolds
James Cassie
William Hogarth
Archibald David Reid
John Bulloch Souter
