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This portrait of Mary Countess Howe is one of Gainsborough’s most striking works. She stands confidently, with a hand-on-hip pose and direct gaze, set against a dark and unruly landscape. The painting was commissioned together with a full-length companion portrait of her husband Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe, a successful British Naval officer and admiral. An appreciation of the pastoral and rural idyll was deemed highly fashionable amongst women in high society throughout the 18th century. Countess Howe owned substantial amounts of land in her own right, having inherited her father’s estates across north-east Leicestershire. Here, Gainsborough presents her as a socially ambitious land-owner, gracefully enjoying a stroll across her estates.

English Heritage, Kenwood

London

Title

Mary, Countess Howe (1732–1800)

Date

c.1764

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 243.2 x W 154.3 cm

Accession number

88028783

Acquisition method

Iveagh Bequest, 1929

Work type

Painting

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Normally on display at

English Heritage, Kenwood

Hampstead Lane, London, Greater London NW3 7JR England

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