George Knapton, British 1698-1778- Portrait of a Lady; pastel on paper, 53 x 40.8 cm. Provenance: Collection of Walter Brandt.; With Abbot & Holder, London. Exhibited: Sudbury, Gainsborough's House, 'Pastel Portraiture of the 18th Century', 25 May...

George Knapton,

British 1698-1778-

Portrait of a Lady;

pastel on paper laid down on canvas, 53 x 40.8 cm.

Provenance: Collection of Walter Brandt.; With Abbot & Holder, London.

Exhibited: Sudbury, Gainsborough's House, 'Pastel Portraiture of the 18th Century', 25 May - 20 June 1982, no.19.

Note: Alongside executing commissions for the family of Frederick, Prince of Wales, Knapton painted a number of other high-ranking contemporaries, particularly in his position as founding member and first portraitist of the Society of Dilettanti. The present work, a rare example in pastel, presents the sitter in a softly draping Divan dress. This suggests that her husband was probably a member of the short-lived Divan Club (1744-46) and/or the much longer-lived Dilettanti Society (founded 1734). Knapton painted members of both. The Divan Club was a dining club, founded by John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich and Sir Francis Dashwood, with membership open to gentlemen who had visited the Ottoman Empire.