She wears none of the accoutrements of her rank...the usual fashionable pearl ear pendants and necklace are absent.
She looks pensively out at the viewer, holding in her right hand, a sprig of jasmine, which, in the language of flowers, symbolises amiability of character.
Unlike the swagger and confidence depicted in most three quarter length portraits of the period here Dahl suggests innocence and vulnerability.
This portrait is a fine example of the artist’s eloquent depiction of aristocratic women. In terms of both draughtmanship and pose Dahl’s female portraits are noticeably softer and gentler than Kneller’s, and thus allow for a greater versatility in the expression of feminine beauty.
Dahl’s works are frequently distinguished by a greater attention to the character of the sitter than those of his rivals, and he particularly allowed a softer aspect to the surfaces of his sitter’s costume and drapery. His colours are silvered and luminous, and there is a great charm and sensitivity in the overall expression of the sitter. In this example, the drapery and sitter’s turned head impart a subtle sense of movement.
LADY ANNE CAMPBELL (c.1696-1736), daughter of Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll.
Lady Anne, the youngest of three children by Campbell's wife Lady Elizabeth Tollemache, married James Stuart, 2nd Earl of Bute (1696-1723) in 1711, becoming Lady Anne Stuart, Countess of Bute at the age of 15 - 17.
She bore him eight children.
Upon his death in 1723, she married Alexander Fraser, 7th Baron of Strichen, in September 1731.
Anne died in 1736, aged 40, and her husband died c.1775.
MICHAEL DAHL (1659 - 1743).
Dahl was a painter of exceptional talent and regarded as the only really serious rival to Sir Godfrey Kneller, for royal patronage, during the years 1690-1714. Dahl's patterns were undoubtedly indebted to the fashion set by Kneller, but Dahl had a lighter palette, his brushwork applied in shorter and more careful strokes.
His self portrait hangs in the National Portrait Gallery and he is famed for having painted a series of wonderful female portraits for the Duke of Somerset, now at Petworth House, and known as the Petworth Beauties.
Dahl's portraits of members of the royal family hang at Kensington Palace and Windsor and other examples of his work can be found at the Tate and National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
SIZE: 57 x 48 inches inc. frame.
PROVENANCE:
Lt. Col. Ernest Henry Dene Stracey (1871-1948)
Sold by his executors at Christie's, June 25th 1948, bought for 10 gns by Wiggins, as by Dahl
Hon. Francis Bowes-Lyon, Ridley Hall, Northumberland.(image 9)
Reynolds Gallery, Barbican, Plymouth, sold 1980, as by Dahl.
Private Collection.
Lawrences, Crewkerne, Somerset 2004, as by Dahl.
Private Collection, Somerset.
Roy and nadine precious: specialists in portraiture from the 16th to the 20th century. Established in 1972.
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Portrait of Lady Anne Campbell C.1715; by Michael Dahl.
