Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury 1727-1788 London)

The present portrait of Mrs. Isaac Elton is a companion to that of her husband, both painted by Gainsborough at Bath (E. Waterhouse, Gainsborough, London, 1966, p. 66, no. 240a).

The sitter, née Ann Tierney, was born on 22 May 1748, the daughter of James Tierney of merchants, Tierney, Lilly and Robarts of London, who lived at Theobalds in Hertfordshire and his wife Anne, allegedly a Circassian princess. On 20 October 1768 she married, as his second wife, Isaac Elton (1739-90) at Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. He had a range of business interests in Bristol and became a partner in the Old Bank, Bristol after the death of his father in 1776. His second wife, the sitter in this portrait, bore him two sons and seven daughters. She died in 1816.