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Emily, Countess of Kildare

Engraver James McArdell Irish
After Sir Joshua Reynolds British
1754
Not on view
This print is based on a Reynolds portrait of 1753-55 and shows the countess seated with her right elbow on a table, the other hand holding a book. She wears a lace veil and a satin dress adorned with ribbons and pearls, with a landscape visible through a window at right. Emily, daughter of Charles, 2nd Duke of Richmond and Lennox, was the second of the famous Lennox sisters. She married James, Earl of Kildare in 1747 (later Duke of Leinster) and they lived in Ireland. After the duke's death in 1773 she caused a scandal by marrying her children's tutor William Ogilvie and continued to be known as the Dowager Duchess of Leinster. When he painted Lady Kildare, Reynolds wrote she "was thought to be the handsomest woman in England."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Emily, Countess of Kildare
  • Engraver: James McArdell (Irish, Dublin 1729–1765 London)
  • Artist: After Sir Joshua Reynolds (British, Plympton 1723–1792 London)
  • Sitter: Emilia Mary Fitzgerald, Duchess of Leinster (British, 1731–1814)
  • Date: 1754
  • Medium: Mezzotint; second state (?) of three
  • Dimensions: Sheet (trimmed): 13 7/8 × 10 1/2 in. (35.3 × 26.7 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Gertrude and Thomas Jefferson Mumford Collection, Gift of Dorothy Quick Mayer, 1942
  • Object Number: 42.119.169
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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