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Description: | This portrait of Isabella Lee was painted approximately 24 years after the group portrait of the Lee family by Joseph Highmore. This portrait shows Isabella, now in advancing old age, when all her children except their eldest son had left Coton. In contrast to her depiction as the proud matriarch in the group portrait, here she is shown in more sombre and reflective pose and with a more penetrating analysis of character. Her dress with its lace collar and bonnet are appropriate to her age and status and her expression is pensive, even melancholy. By the time this picture was painted she had already endured the loss of her youngest son Thomas, who drowned in the River Cherwell in 1747 and her daughter-in-law, who died in childbirth at Coton Hall in 1751. The position of her grandson, relates closely to the position of Elizabeth in the group portrait. He was born in January 1757 and appears to be about two years old in this picture. It is the obvious contrasts of youth and age, with one generation drawing to a close whilst the next springs up... emphasising the importance of continuity, succession and inheritance, especially amongst the landed gentry. Isabella was the Granddaughter of Judge Henry Gough of Old fallings, Wolverhampton, who donated 5,000 towards the army of Charles I before the battle of Edge Hill.
Oil painting showing Isabella Lee standing with her young grandson who is standing on a chair beside her. She is wearing a red dress with white lace collar and bonnet. She holds a book in her hand. | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/ | Publisher: | Wolverhampton Arts and Museums Service | Subjects: | Boys Childhood Portrait painting Fine arts Women Oil painting Grandmothers Oil Paintings Elderly Isabella Lee Children Georgian period People and roles Books Paintings Grandsons Family Portraits Dresses People William Waller Art collections | Temporal: | 1759
Georgian (1714-1837) | Source: | Black Country History | Creator: | HIGHMORE; Joseph (1692 - 1780) | Identifier: | http://www.blackcountryhistory.org/colle... | Go to resource |
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