This small sketch is one of at least two studies for a finished watercolour portrait of Lady Gore-Booth and her daughters. The other sketch, in the NGI collection, shows the figures in a slightly different pose, with four ladies seated in the background. In the first half of the 1840s Burton painted a series of family groups, the Gore-Booth picture being one of the more significant. (The finished work (private collection) will be included in the forthcoming Burton exhibition. Caroline Goold, Lady Gore-Booth, was the second wife of Robert Gore-Booth who built Lisadell House in Co. Sligo. The commission may have been prompted by the success of Burton’s earlier portrait of Henry Irwin, Robert Gore-Booth’s grandfather. This sketch, which is close compositionally to the finished watercolour, depicts Lady Gore-Booth reclining in a window seat book in hand, reading to her daughters. The finished painting was exhibited at the RHA in 1845 but it is likely Burton visited Lisadell the previous year to make preparatory sketches. In his diary for 1844 Burton notes that he lent his copy of Thomas Carlyle’s ‘Heroes’ to Lady Gore Booth and one can imagine them discussing Carlyle’s book during the sitting.
This small sketch is one of at least two studies for a finished watercolour portrait of Lady Gore-Booth and her daughters. The other sketch, in the NGI collection, shows the figures in a slightly different pose, with four ladies seated in the background. In the first half of the 1840s Burton painted a series of family groups, the Gore-Booth picture being one of the more significant. (The finished work (private collection) will be included in the forthcoming Burton exhibition. Caroline Goold, Lady Gore-Booth, was the second wife of Robert Gore-Booth who built Lisadell House in Co. Sligo. The commission may have been prompted by the success of Burton’s earlier portrait of Henry Irwin, Robert Gore-Booth’s grandfather. This sketch, which is close compositionally to the finished watercolour, depicts Lady Gore-Booth reclining in a window seat book in hand, reading to her daughters. The finished painting was exhibited at the RHA in 1845 but it is likely Burton visited Lisadell the previous year to make preparatory sketches. In his diary for 1844 Burton notes that he lent his copy of Thomas Carlyle’s ‘Heroes’ to Lady Gore Booth and one can imagine them discussing Carlyle’s book during the sitting.