Sophia Charlotte Digby, Lady Sheffield (1767 - 1835)
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Full length portrait of Sophia Charlotte, Lady Sheffield standing and turning to her right in an autumnal landscape with evening light. Sophia looks diagonally left. She wears a pale yellow silk dress with a trailing overskirt and a blue underskirt, plus puffy slashed sleeves decorated with pearls ending in frilly lace cuffs. She carries some of her skirt over her left arm and hand, the latter positioned to show off her wedding ring. She wears a blue sash tied in a bow at the back. A blue bows trims her bodice. Under her bodice she wears a chemise with a gauzy Vandyke collar. Her hair is loose and powdered. She wears a wide-brimmed blue hat with a sunburst design beneath the brim trimmed with a large bow. She wears white slippers with large silver buckles. Behind her, to the left is a silver birch tree, with other trees. To the right, trees appear in the midground, with a cloudy sky above.
Sophia Charlotte, the niece of the 1st Earl Digby, married Sir John Sheffield (c. 1743 - 1815) in 1784. This portrait of her was probably made to celebrate the marriage as Sophia's wedding ring is prominently placed. It was shown to the public in Thomas Gainsborough's studio at Schomberg House, London, in 1786.
Gainsborough's late experiments with integrating his sitters into the landscape are evident in this painting. Sophia appears to be rising from the ground, like the trees surrounding her. This portrait is one of several in which Gainsborough experimented with a walking pose to give dynamism to the composition. The first inspiration for this new formula probably came from the paintings of the 18th-century French artist Antoine Watteau (1684-1721). It appears in Gainsborough's 'The Mall' of 1783-4 in the Frick Collection, New York. To develop these poses, Gainsborough made sketches of fashionable and feisty women walking in St James's Park, London. In this painting, Sophia turns, producing a serpentine line down the figure traced through the bows and the bustle of her dress.
The silvery tonality, lively design, and rapidly applied paint are all typical of Gainsborough's late style. He used a lot of turpentine in his paints to make them very fluid. In this painting, the turpentine has caused large drying cracks in the background. Touches of red offset the blues and whites of Sophia's dress. The hand supporting the shawl is a gesture that Gainsborough borrowed from Van Dyck, whilst the long, thin, right arm shows off a type of ideal feminine beauty depicted in contemporary fashion plates. Sophia's dress has the slashed sleeves of the Van Dyck style. This style was a popular motif in women's dress and accessories in the later 18th century. Sophia's hat is also reminiscent of this fashion. Gainsborough's source for the pose seems to be Van Dyck's portrait of Elizabeth Howard, Countess of Peterborough (private collection).
When this portrait was made, Gainsborough had been in London for ten years, having previously made a name for himself as a portrait painter in the fashionable city of Bath. He lived in a lavish house in Pall Mall where he showed the portrait in 1786. Gainsborough's painting of Sophia has always been popular. In 1785, the Reverend Henry Bates described the picture in the 'Morning Herald' as a 'daily awakening to perfection, with all the external grace and elegance of nature'.
Phillippa Plock, 2011
Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)
2273 x 1492
Signature & date
not signed or dated
Provenance
- Probably commissioned by the sitter's husband Sir John Sheffield, 2nd Baronet of Normanby (b.Circa 1743, d.1815) in circa 1785; by descent to his relative Sir Robert Sheffield, 5th Baronet of Normanby (b.1823, d.1886); acquired by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (b.1839, d.1898) from the estate of Sir Robert Sheffield; inherited by his sister Alice de Rothschild (b.1847, d.1922); inherited by her great-nephew James de Rothschild (b.1878, d.1957); bequeathed to Waddesdon (National Trust) in 1957.
Exhibition history
- British Institute Exhibition, London, 1864, no. 156
- Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1885, no. 47 lent by Sir Robert Sheffield, Bart
- 'Gainsborough', Agnews, London, 1928, no. 15
- British Art, Royal Academy, London, 1934, no. 169 lent by James A. de Rothschild (Memorial Catalogue, no. 205)
Collection
- Waddesdon (National Trust)
- Bequest of James de Rothschild, 1957
Bibliography
- Sir Walter Armstrong; Gainsborough and his place in English art; London; William Heinemann; 1898; p. 279; on other versions.
- Emile Michel, La Galerie de M. Rodolphe Kann, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1901, 494; p. 494; ill. copy in Rodolphe Kann collection.
- William T. Whitley; Thomas Gainsborough; London; Smith, Elder; 1915; pp. 238, 257
- Ellis Waterhouse; Gainsborough; London; Edward Hulton Limited; 1958; p. 89, no. 609
- ♦; Sir Francis Watson, The Art Collections at Waddesdon Manor I: The Paintings, Apollo, 69, June 1959, 172-182; p. 175, fig. 2
- Ellis Waterhouse, The English Pictures at Waddesdon Manor, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 54, August 1959, 49-56; p. 54
- Keith Roberts; Thomas Gainsborough: The Masters, 32; London; Knowledge Publications; 1966; pp. 5, 8, ill.
- Ellis Waterhouse, Anthony Blunt; Paintings: The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor; Fribourg; Office du Livre, The National Trust; 1967; pp. 48-50, cat. no. 10, ill. detail
- John Hayes, Gainsborough's 'Richmond Water-walk', The Burlington Magazine, 101, 1969, 28-31; pp. 28-29, ill. 44
- ♦; John Hayes; Thomas Gainsborough; Tate Gallery, London, 8 October 1980 - 4 January 1981; London; The Tate Gallery Publications; 1980; p. 128, fig. 35
- Virgilia Heimsath Pancoast, Gainsborough's "Lady Sheffield" and Two Copies, IFAR reports, 8, May 1987, 3; p. 3, ill.
- Pauline Prevost-Marcilhacy; Les Rothschilds, bâtisseurs et mécènes; Paris; Flammarion; 1995; p. 168, ill.
- Aileen Ribeiro; The Art of Dress: fashion in England and France 1750-1820; London; Yale University Press; 1995; pp. 73-74, ill.
- Bettina Gockel; Kunst und Politik der Farbe: Gainsboroughs Portraitmalerei; Berlin; Gebrudermann Verlag; 1999; pp. 56, 244, no. 47, ill.
- Robyn Asleson, Shelley Bennett; British Painting at The Huntington; New Haven; Yale University Press; 2001; pp. 144-45, fig. 62
- Matthew Hirst; Les peintures: l'âge d'or du portrait anglais; Les collections exceptionnelles des Rothschild: Waddesdon Manor (Hors-série de l'Estampille/l'Objet d'Art, No. 14), Dijon, Éditions Faton, 2004; 22-29; pp. 26-27, ill.
- Rhoda Eitel-Porter, Cara Dufour-Denison, Isabelle Dervaux, Jennifer Tonkovich, Kathleen Stuart, Anne Varick Lauder, Laura B Zukerman; From Leonardo to Pollock: Master Drawings from the Morgan Library; New York; Pierpont Morgan Library, Morgan Library and Museum; 2006; p. 126
- 5182; p. 134, fig. 29
- Hugh Belsey; Thomas Gainsborough: The Portraits, Fancy Pictures and Copies After Old Masters (Volume 1 and 2); 1-2; The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Yale University Press; 2019; cat. 810, vol. II, pp. 752-754, ill.
Subject person
- Lady Sophia Charlotte Sheffield, Sitter
- Anthony van Dyck, Alluded to in image
Person as Subject
Subjects
- Figures/Female
- Portraits/Female
- Nature, Landscape & The Elements/Countryside
- Nature, Landscape & The Elements/Trees & Plants
- Nature, Landscape & The Elements/Trees & Plants/Silver Birch Tree
- Nature, Landscape & The Elements/Clouds
- Work & Occupations/Social Rank/Nobility
- Objects/Clothing & Personal Effects/Fancy Dress