George Romney (Dalton-in-Furness, Lancashire 1734 - Kendal, Cumbria 1802)

This arresting portrait of Mary Moody was painted in 1786, a key year in Romney’s oeuvre that saw his muse, Emma Hamilton, move to Naples, five years after her first appearance in his studio, and the inception of the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery, which presented the artist with the opportunity to exhibit imaginative paintings outside the Royal Academy. The portrait is characteristic of the period with its remarkably fluid brushwork, notably in the handling of the pink bow that runs down the sitter's white dress. The bravura execution is allied with passages of masterfully subtle observation, a quality that is most delightfully realised in the rendering of the dog on the sitter’s lap.

Mary Paterson was married on 23 February 1786 to Samuel Moody. Moody’s first wife Elizabeth Johnson (1756-82) was painted with their sons, Samuel and Thomas, by Gainsborough (1779-1785; London, Dulwich Picture Gallery).

An early owner of the picture was the celebrated horseracing figure and dandy, William Stuart Stirling Crawfurd. In 1876 Crawfurd married Caroline Agnes Graham, the flamboyant widow of the 4th Duke of Montrose, who notoriously rode under the pseudonym of Mr Manton, as racing was not then considered a suitable pastime for a lady. The sale of the Duchess's pictures at Christie's in 1894 included two other works by Romney; Lady Hamilton as The Magdalen (lot 88) and Lady Hamilton as Ariadne (lot 89).