Thomas Lawrence, English, 1769-1830
Title: Portrait of Lady Elizabeth Foster, later Duchess of Devonshire (1759-1824)
Date: c.1805
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
240 x 148 cm
Credit Line: Bequeathed, Sir Hugh Lane, 1918
Object Number: NGI.788
DescriptionThe second daughter of the Earl Bishop of Derry, Lady Foster led an extraordinary life after separating from her first husband, John Foster of County Louth. She acted as paid companion to an illegitimate daughter of the 5th Duke of Devonshire on a tour to the Continent and the following year returned to Italy secretly to bear the Duke a daughter. A son by him was born later at Rouen and (until she could marry the Duke in 1809, when his wife died), Lady Foster, or ‘Betty’ as she was known, lived on equal terms with the couple.
Lawrence gives no hint of all this in his breathtakingly romanticised image of her as the Tiburtine Sibyl, a Roman prophetess who foretold the coming of Christ. Dressed in quasi-antique costume, and looking younger than her 46 years, she stands in a declamatory pose against a ruined column. Beneath a stormy sky is a distant generalised view of the Temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli, which her father had tried to buy for his house at Downhill, County Antrim, but was prevented from exporting. She was to spend her last years in Rome, where she carried out excavations in the forum.
March 2016
Lawrence gives no hint of all this in his breathtakingly romanticised image of her as the Tiburtine Sibyl, a Roman prophetess who foretold the coming of Christ. Dressed in quasi-antique costume, and looking younger than her 46 years, she stands in a declamatory pose against a ruined column. Beneath a stormy sky is a distant generalised view of the Temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli, which her father had tried to buy for his house at Downhill, County Antrim, but was prevented from exporting. She was to spend her last years in Rome, where she carried out excavations in the forum.
March 2016
ProvenanceCollection of Sir Vere Foster; 26 June 1914, A.M. Grenfell sale, lot 48; Sir Hugh Lane; bequeathed, Sir Hugh Lane, 1918
Exhibition HistoryRoyal Academy of Arts, London, 1805
British Institute, London, 1855
Lawrence Exhibition, City Art Gallery, Bristol, 1951
Centenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, October - December 1964
Sir Thomas Lawrence 1769-1830, National Portrait Gallery, London, 9 November 1979 - 16 March 1980
The Swagger Portrait, Tate Britain, London, 14 October 1992 - 10 January 1993
Maesta'Di Roma. Da Napoleone all'Unita d'Italia, Scuderie del Quirinale, 5 March - 29 June 2003
British Institute, London, 1855
Lawrence Exhibition, City Art Gallery, Bristol, 1951
Centenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, October - December 1964
Sir Thomas Lawrence 1769-1830, National Portrait Gallery, London, 9 November 1979 - 16 March 1980
The Swagger Portrait, Tate Britain, London, 14 October 1992 - 10 January 1993
Maesta'Di Roma. Da Napoleone all'Unita d'Italia, Scuderie del Quirinale, 5 March - 29 June 2003
Label TextLady Foster stands with a scroll, in a romanticised image that imagines her as the Roman prophetess who foretold the coming of Christ. Second daughter of the Earl Bishop of Derry, Lady Elizabeth was famed as a great beauty. She married, and subsequently separated from, politician John Foster of Co. Louth. In 1782, Lady Foster and the 5th Duke of Devonshire became lovers. They lived together at Chatsworth, Derbyshire, with his wife Georgiana. Following the birth of a number of illegitimate children, Lady Foster married the Duke of Devonshire in 1809.