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Lot Essay
This portrait of the young Mary Moody, née Paterson, was commissioned from George Romney on the occasion of her marriage to Samuel Moody (1733-1808) in 1786. Romney was by then much in demand. His sitter books from March 1776 to December 1795 record some 1,500 sitters, many of whom commissioned more than one portrait. Pupils and assistants kept a daily record of activities in the studio between October 1786 and April 1796 and the number of sittings per day ranged from three to six or even seven at the height of the season, with one or even two on a Sunday. Romney’s many sitters were doubtless attracted not only by his refined pictorial style but also by his prices, which were consistently lower than those charged by his chief rivals, Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough. In the year that this portrait was painted, he is documented as charging 20 gns. per three-quarter-length, as opposed to the 30 gns. charged by Gainsborough and the 50 gns. charged by Reynolds. John Romney stated that in 1786 his father painted portraits to the value of 3,504 gns.
Mary Moody was 18 years old when she became the second wife of Samuel Moody, who was some 35 years her senior. His first wife had been painted with their two sons four years earlier by Thomas Gainsborough and Samuel no doubt turned to Romney to produce a likeness of his new wife, which would be an exercise in contrast. Mary’s portrait was painted over the course of eleven sittings between April and December 1786, though the majority of the picture must have been complete by 14 July and the final two appointment on 22 November and 6 December were probably for finishing. Her husband paid Romney’s fee in two installments, the first in May and the second in December, following completion of the work. The resulting portrait is fresh and rapidly handled, the inclusion of the little lap dog reminiscent of the artist’s portrait of Emma Hart (1765–1815), later Lady Hamilton, as Nature, painted four years earlier for the Honourable Charles Greville (1749–1809), now in the Frick Collection, New York.
Mary Moody was 18 years old when she became the second wife of Samuel Moody, who was some 35 years her senior. His first wife had been painted with their two sons four years earlier by Thomas Gainsborough and Samuel no doubt turned to Romney to produce a likeness of his new wife, which would be an exercise in contrast. Mary’s portrait was painted over the course of eleven sittings between April and December 1786, though the majority of the picture must have been complete by 14 July and the final two appointment on 22 November and 6 December were probably for finishing. Her husband paid Romney’s fee in two installments, the first in May and the second in December, following completion of the work. The resulting portrait is fresh and rapidly handled, the inclusion of the little lap dog reminiscent of the artist’s portrait of Emma Hart (1765–1815), later Lady Hamilton, as Nature, painted four years earlier for the Honourable Charles Greville (1749–1809), now in the Frick Collection, New York.