Portrait of Elizabeth, Countess of Ranelagh (d. 1695), three-quarter-length, in a white dress, on a terrace with an urn

The sitter was the daughter of James Cecil, 3rd Earl of Salisbury (1648-1683), and widow of John, 2nd Baron Stowell of Somerton (1668-1692). She married, in 1695/6, Richard Jones, 1st Earl of Ranelagh (1640/1-1711/2), who served as Paymaster-General of the Army, 1685-1702, when he was convicted of misappropriation of £72,000, and was expelled from the Commons. Lady Ranelagh was immortalised by Henry Fielding, who in describing Sophia Western, the heroine of Tom Jones, cited the Beauties and wrote that 'She was most like the picture of Lady Ranelagh.'

See note to lot 734 for details of the Hampton Court Beauties.