Portrait of Esther Milnes, C.1745, by Thomas Hudson.

Oil on canvas in the original fine period carved and giltwood frame. The painting is in excellent original condition.

Lower left: "Mrs. Robt Milnes. Obt. 1799"

This is a portrait of great quality. For some years it was thought to be by Allan Ramsay, who was Hudson's main competitor at this time.

Hudson's portraits on this model were the dominant London fashion in the 1740s and early 1750s, much emulated by Ramsay. Variants on this composition with the bust depicted side-on, three-quarter profile and Van Dyck dress are encountered frequently among Hudson's and Ramsay's followers, and the blue and oyster costume is probably the work of their shared drapery painter Joseph Van Aken.

HOMAS HUDSON (1701 – 26 January 1779) was an English portrait painter.

Hudson was born in Devon in 1701.His exact birthplace is unknown. He studied under Jonathan Richardson in London and against his wishes, married Richardson's daughter at some point before 1725.

Hudson was most prolific between 1740 and 1760 and, from 1745 until 1755 was the most successful London portraitist.

Between the departure of Jean-Baptiste Van Loo in 1742 and the growing supremacy of Sir Joshua Reynolds in the later 1750s, Thomas Hudson was the principal portraitist to London society, who appreciated his smooth, elegant manner and his shimmering depiction of elaborate costume. Hudson's liberal employment of assistants - including the young Reynolds — and specialist drapery painters the Van Akens - is well known.

Hudson's work combines the high-keyed colours of the Rococo with poses derived from such artists as van Dyck, Kneller and his own teacher and father-in-law, Jonathan Richardson. He painted at least 400 portraits, about 80 of which were engraved. Among his many pupils were Joseph Wright of Derby, John Hamilton Mortimer and Joshua Reynolds. Hudson was a member of the group of artists including Hogarth, Allan Ramsay, Francis Hayman and the sculptor John Michael Rysbrack, who met at Old Slaughter's Coffee House in the mid-1740s and who promoted Thomas Coram's Foundling Hospital, of which they were governors, as the first public exhibiting space for artists in London.

ESTHER SHORE, Mrs ROBERT MILNES, was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, in 1723. She married Robert Milnes, who had first married Joyce Slater, in 1766. He died in 1771. Esther died in 1799.

SIZE: 37 x 31.5 inches framed.

PROVENANCE: Herefordshire Private Collection for about the last 50 years.