3-017-164 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Lady Gertrude Fitzpatrick, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, in the exhibition of the works of Old Masters at the British Institution, 1865. Engraving of a painting. 'Of the many charming pictures of children Sir Joshua has left us, this portrait of the little Lady Gertrude Fitzpatrick, exhibited by the Right Hon. J. W. Fitzpatrick (a relative, we presume, though we do not know in what degree), is one of the most delightful. The attitude, with the hands primly crossed, and an arch shyness of expression, as if conscious of being painted, is repeated in three or four of the master's portraits of children...Agreeably to the classicalism of the time, which gave to other of Sir Joshua's works the titles of "Muscipula," "Felina," and other fanciful designations, the present portrait was also called "Collina," from the little hill on which the child is standing. We must suppose that she is thus placed, and that we are looking slightly upwards at her, in order to account for a figure so diminutive in stature having nothing but a sky background, and for the horizontal line being so low as the ankles'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.