Portrait of Anne Stewart, née Dashwood, Countess of Galloway (1743-1830), three-quarter-length, in a blue dress adorned with pearls, with her daughter, Lady Susan Stewart, later Duchess of Marlborough (1767-1841), in a white dress, holding a sketchbook and stylus

Anne, Countess of Galloway, was the third daughter of Sir James Dashwood, 2nd Bt., M.P. (1715–1779), of Kirtlington, Oxfordshire and his wife, Elizabeth, co-heiress with her sister, Anne, Duchess of Hamilton, of Edward Spencer of Rendlesham. In 1764 she married, as his second wife, John Stewart, Lord Garlies, later 7th Earl of Galloway (1736-1806), who had been painted at Rome by Mengs in 1758 (Los Angeles Countly Museum of Art, inv. no. M.2001.21) and would inherit Galloway House, designed by William Adam, with extensive estates in Wigtonshire. In 1791 their child Lady Susan Stewart, shown here as a young girl, married George Spencer Churchill, Marquess of Blandford, later 5th Duke of Marlborough (1766-1840), who no doubt had come to know her because the Dashwoods at Kirtlington were close neighbors. An extravagant collector of early books, the duke would unfortunately not prove a faithful husband. The duchess, on the other hand, was widely respected and inspired a deep loyalty in her children. Her family was extensive, many of her children and grandchildren serving as officers in the British Army and in the Houses of Parliament, including her third-great grandson, Sir Winston Churchill. For an authoritative account on the life of Lady Susan see Mary Soames, The Profligate Duke, George Spencer Churchill, fifth Duke of Marlborough and his Duchess, London, 1987. In this relaxed family portrait, Anne poses with her daughter Susan and places one arm gently around the girl's shoulders. Susan leans into an open sketchbook that rests on her mother's lap and holds a stylus in mid-air, as if interrupted whilst drawing. Kauffman brings a particularly maternal and feminine touch to such portraits, conveying the easy intimacy between a mother and her daughter.

We are grateful to Dr. Bettina Baumgärtel and Professor Wendy Wassying Roworth who independently confirmed the attribution to Kauffman after inspection of the original in 2014.