English painting

While she stayed in London Nélie Jacquemart bought a series of English portraits. Along with the collection of the Duc d’Aumale, it is the largest collection in France where all the great names of the English school can be found. So it is not astonishing to find among them a work by Reynolds, a painter who is often associated with the Romantic Movement in the UK.
The contrast between the dark clothes and the white tie, the glowing red stage curtain and the solemn intensity of the model all support this tendency. The format of the painting, a bust portrait, is part of a series, several copies of which are known, all taken from the same subject but treated in different ways (full-length and full-size). These types of small replicas were common in official art and responded to the demand of key figures.