Valentine Green 1739-1813 after Sir Joshua Reynolds 1723-1792. An unusually large mezzotint engraving laid on glass in original giltwood frame. Circa. 1790. 38.5 by 60.3 cms image. 46.5 by 68 cms framed. The image has some yellowing as to be expected otherwise in exceptional order with lovely rippling to the glass. The frame has wear and edge chipping.
Mary Isabella Manners 1756-1831 Duchess of Rutland. Politician and society hostess; married Charles Manners, Marquess of Granby (later 4th Duke of Rutland) in 1775. The pair made a glamorous political couple. In 1780, the first general election after her marriage, despite being eight months pregnant, she campaigned actively, canvassing votes in person and by letter. Her contemporary, Charles Piggot, described her as ‘a woman modelled as it were by the graces, with a delicacy and cultivation of mind rarely to be found’, and Nathaniel Wraxall called her ‘the most beautiful woman in England’. Sir Joshua Reynolds painted her four times. The original painting of this composition was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1781, but was later destroyed in a fire of 1816. The mezzotint is now the only record of the painting. The Duchess later reported that Reynolds had made her try on eleven different dresses before choosing "that bedgown"