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Her Royal Highness, The Duchess of Gloucester (formerly Maria Waldegrave, Countess Dowager)

Artist and publisher Engraved and published by John Finlayson British
After Sir Joshua Reynolds British
1773
Not on view
This engraving reproduces Reynolds's 1764–65 portrait of Maria, the widow of James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl of Waldegrave (d. 1763). Shown in mourning, she wears a dark gown and veil, rests her head on one hand and gazes up and to the right. In 1766, the sitter remarried George III's younger brother, Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, a union of which the king disapproved that stimulated the passage of the Royal Marriages Act. Maria was the illegitimate daughter of Dorothy Clement and Edward Walpole, the younger son of Sir Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, and grew up at Frogmore House, Windsor. The related painting is in the collection of the Duke of Grafton at Euston Hall.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Her Royal Highness, The Duchess of Gloucester (formerly Maria Waldegrave, Countess Dowager)
  • Artist and publisher: Engraved and published by John Finlayson (British, ca. 1730–ca. 1776)
  • Artist: After Sir Joshua Reynolds (British, Plympton 1723–1792 London)
  • Sitter: Maria Waldegrave, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh (British, 1736–1807)
  • Date: 1773
  • Medium: Mezzotint
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 20 1/16 x 13 15/16 in. (51 x 35.4 cm)
    Leaf: 28 15/16 × 20 1/2 in. (73.5 × 52 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1925
  • Object Number: 25.62.3r
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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Aedes Walpolianae, or a Description of the Collection of Pictures at Houghton Hall in Norfolk, the Seat of the Right Honorable Sir Robert Walpole, Earl of Orford (Interleaved with Drawings by Isaac Ware for: The Plans, Elevations, and Sections of Chimney Pieces, and Celings of Houghton Hall in Norfolk...1735) ["The Walpole Album"], Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford British, Etching, engraving, pen and ink, brush and wash, watercolor
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