Portrait of the Ladies Amabel and Mary Jemima Yorkec. 1761
Sisters Amabel (left) and Mary Jemima are shown playing on the grounds of their family’s country estate outside London. More about this work
About this work
Sisters Amabel (left) and Mary Jemima are shown playing on the grounds of their family’s country estate outside London. They wear loose, flowing garments invented specifically for the portrait rather than their usual outdoor dresses. Their father commissioned the painting to hang in the family’s city home in London’s St. James Square and it highlights their status as landowners. Joshua Reynolds painted this portrait after his return from Italy, where his studies inspired him to incorporate classical references. The famous ancient Roman Statue of a Girl with a Dove is echoed in Mary Jemima’s pose as she shields a dove from the family dog.
Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art.
How it was made
- Oil paint
- Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.
Joshua Reynolds
English, 1723–1792 · Born in Plympton; died in London.
Reynolds trained in London under Thomas Hudson, then spent two years in Italy studying the old masters, an experience that shaped his ambition to raise portraiture to the dignity of history painting. He became the leading portraitist of Georgian society and, in 1768, the first President of the Royal Academy. His Discourses to its students set out the principles of the Grand Manner and remained influential long after his death.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Cleveland Museum of Art has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1942.645
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
- Type
- Painting
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
