Portraits in disguise - NPG 238
Catherine Douglas (née Hyde), Duchess of Queensberry
attributed to Charles Jervas
circa 1725-1730
NPG 238
The successful society portraitist Jervas was also a favourite in literary circles, and this is possibly why he was commissioned to paint the Duchess of Queensberry (1700-77), a fashionable and eccentric beauty and noted patron and friend of writers, among whom were Congreve and Pope. In 1773 Horace Walpole noted - 'One should sooner take her for young beauty of an old-fashioned century, than for an antiquated goddess of this age - I mean by twilight'. It is said that she died, still beautiful, aged 72, of a surfeit of cherries! Here she is portrayed as a milkmaid in the affected simplicity of the pastoral mode, holding a pail and wearing a plain bodice and cap, in the distance behind her a view of a milkmaid tending some cows.
Mrs Tyers, detail from
'Jonathan Tyers and his family'
by Francis Hayman, 1740
NPG 5588 (Detail)
The
typical early eighteenth century English look; a quilted petticoat
gives bulk to the bell-shaped robe à l'anglaise; with
cuffs, robings and round the neck a fichu. A muslin apron with
lace edging competes the outfit.
