GEORGE ROMNEY, R.A. (DALTON-IN-FURNESS, LANCASHIRE 1734-1802 KENDAL, CUMBRIA)

The sitter in this painting has traditionally been identified as Anne, Countess of Clare, on account of the painting’s early ownership by the younger of her two sons, Richard Hobart FitzGibbon, who inherited the Earldom of Clare upon the death of his elder brother, John FitzGibbon, 2nd Earl of Clare (1792-1851). In his recent catalogue raisonné, Alex Kidson (loc. cit.) notes that such an identification is anachronistic, since the painting is datable to the mid- to late 1780s, while Anne Whaley of Whaley Abbey, Co. Wicklow, Ireland, only became Countess of Clare upon the promotion of her husband, John FitzGibbon (1748-1802), to the Earldom of Clare in 1795. Provided the sitter is indeed Anne Whaley – who married FitzGibbon on 1 July 1786 at St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland – its correct title would be either Miss Whaley or Mrs FitzGibbon.

Several factors inhibit definitive identification of the sitter. Romney’s sitter books and ledgers do not contain a reference to either a Miss Whaley or Mrs FitzGibbon. However, as Kidson notes (loc. cit.), Romney’s sitter book for 1785 is entirely missing, and it is possible that the portrait could have been carried out and entirely paid for in that year given its stylistic consistencies with such a dating. More problematic for the identification of the woman as Miss Whaley is the fact that the sitter wears black and it is unclear whether she was at that time in mourning. For these reasons, Kidson leaves open the possibility that the portrait depicts another woman altogether – possibly a mistress of John FitzGibbon – and that it was only subsequently misidentified as a portrait of the Countess.