Angelica Kauffman (Graubünden 1741-1807 Rome)

The sitter is the daughter of William FitzHerbert (d. 1772) and Mary (d. 1753), daughter of Littleton Poyntz Meynell, of Bradley, Derbyshire. She married Henry Gally Knight, of Langold, Notts. Kauffman also painted portraits of Selina's brother, Alleyn, later Lord St. Helens (d. 1839), a distinguished diplomatist, and her sister-in-law, Sarah Perrin, who married William FitzHerbert, later 1st Bt., in 1777. The latter was painted by Kauffman in Rome in 1784 (see Manners and Williamson, 'Memorandum of Paintings', in op. cit., p. 145). The present portrait is not mentioned in Kauffman's Memorandum, so was likely painted in London, shortly before Kauffman's return to Italy in 1781.

We are grateful to Professor Wendy Wassyng Roworth and Dr Bettina Baumgaertel for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs.