Hester Lynch Piozzi (née Salusbury, later Mrs Thrale)

Mid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue Entry

Sitter in 14 portraits
The daughter of a Welsh landowner, Hester Lynch Salusbury married London brewer Henry Thrale aged twenty-two. In 1765 the Thrales were introduced to Samuel Johnson who, thereafter, spent much time at their home in Streatham where he enjoyed the lively conversation of his well-educated hostess. It was widely speculated that the two would marry when Thrale died in 1781 but they became estranged when she married the Italian musician Gabriel Mario Piozzi in July 1784. Her Anecdotes of the late Samuel Johnson, written shortly after his death in December 1784, sold out within a day and remain one of the best personal accounts of Johnson. The writer Hannah More considered its anecdotal style to be a 'new-fashioned biography'.