3-002-385 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Portrait of a Lady Holding a Book, c1740-49. This fascinating portrait of an unnamed British woman perfectly balances restraint and luxury and is artful in its controlled display of the markers of material wealth: the pink dress could be flirtatious, but the woman’s torso is covered by a large kerchief; she wears several layers of lace, but it was made in Britain rather than imported from France. This painting is testimony to the existence of a prosperous merchant class outside London, a feature of the growth of trade in 18th-century Britain.