Portrait of Elizabeth Gunning, Dutchess of Hamlton & Brandon and Duchess of Argyll

Date1770

After work by Catherine Read

Engraver John Finlayson (ca. 1730 -ca. 1776)

OriginEngland, London

MediumMezzotint with line engraving on laid paper

DimensionsOverall: 21 × 15 1/2in. (53.3 × 39.4cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund

Object number2023-310

DescriptionLower margin reads: "C. Read pinx.t/ Publish'd Nov.r 10.th 1770./ J. Finlayson sculp.t/ Elizabeth Dutches of Hamilton & Brandon. And Dutches of ARGYLL/ Sold by J. FInlayson, Orange Street Leicester Fields"
Label TextElizabeth Gunning was twice a duchess and a renowned beauty during the 1750s-1770s – some have called her story a rags to riches story or Cinderella story. She was born the second daughter of minor nobility in Ireland, however when she and her sister (also a noted beauty) were presented to London society, they became instant celebrities. Elizabeth married James, 6th Duke of Hamilton on the same night that they met. After the death of the Duke several years later, she married John Campbell, Marquis of Lorne, who became the 5th Duke of Argyll. She was one of the most portraited woman in Britain during the mid-eighteenth century and is thought to have served as the inspiration for some of engraver Thomas Frye’s untitled portraits of fashionable women.

The print is based on a painted portrait by Scottish female artist Catherine [sometimes Katherine] Read who worked as a fashionable portrait painter in London during the 1750s through the 1770s.
ProvenanceBefore 2023, (Nick Cox, Period Portraits, London); 2023-present, purchased by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation