Oil on metal, oval, 31.1cm by 25.4cm. A pair to PIC230.
Signed l.r.: Angelica Kauffman/pinx.
Maria is a character in a novel entitled ‘A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy’ written by Lawrence Sterne and first published in 1768.
The novel records that Maria is stricken with grief upon the death of her husband, her sense of loss depicted here by the artist.
Angelica Kauffman was extremely talented from a young age; a painter of portraits, landscapes and history paintings and one of the founder members of the Royal Academy in 1768.
Brownlow, 9th Earl of Exeter (1725-1793), became one of her patrons after she painted an exquisite portrait of him in Naples in 1764, whilst he was on his first Grand Tour (PIC781).
