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The daughter of a gentleman of Irish origins, William Carr, the sitter probably posed for this painting on the occasion of her marriage in 1789 to Thomas Chinnal Porter. Executed with bold, loose and very fluid brushstrokes, this is an early work by Lawrence that concentrates on the psychological depiction of the model.
The sitter wears the ceremonial robes of the House of Lords and the insignia of the Order of the Garter. Lawrence captures the sitter’s personality in a work whose technique recalls that of Van Dyck. John Fane (1759-1841), son of the 9th Earl of Westmoreland and Augusta Montague Bertie, married twice and had nine children.
Depicted full-length, the sitter is shown seated in a gallery opening onto a park. She wears a sweeping gown in the Empire style with a shawl over her arms and a turban-like headdress. This is a characteristic work by Lawrence, who habitually endowed his sitters with an air of serene distinction.
