Portrait of a lady, full length, in a golden dress and blue silk shawl, seated in a landscape

The sitter of this portrait has traditionally been identified as the actress Nell Gwyn. It is, however, more likely to be based on a portrait of Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester that is depicted in Richard Tompson's mezzotint (after the Lely original) in the National Portrait Gallery, London. It resembles this portrait closely in the pose and composition but the variations in the facial detail make it impossible to confirm the identity of the sitter for certain. We are grateful to Erika Ingham at the National Portrait Gallery for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.
In a carved Eighteenth Century English frame.