This exquisitely refined female portrait is imbued with the profound sense of poetry characteristic of the artist’s late works. Dressed in a classical style gown, she is set against a background of clouds and evening light, creating a nostalgic, pre-Romantic mood. Daughter of Sir William Stephenson, in 1766 the sitter married John Sawbridge of Olantigh, a Kentish landowner and Lord Mayor of London in 1775.