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Angelica Kauffmann , Swiss, 1741-1807

Title

The Ely Family

Date1771

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

243 x 287 cm

Signedcentre left: Angelica Kauffman[...]pinxt 1771

Credit LinePresented, 4th Marquess of Ely, 1878

Object numberNGI.200

DescriptionThe 1st Earl of Ely and his wife stand in the centre of this impressive group portrait, begun at Rathfarnham Palace and completed in the artist’s London studio. The two young women on the left are nieces to the couple. Frances Monroe is seated at the harpsichord playing an aria from ‘La Buona Figliuola’ by Niccolo Piccini, a popular hit in Dublin at the time. Dolly Monroe stands before her in pseudo-classical costume designed to give the sense of an allegorical figure. She was a true beauty, pursued by both the Lord Lieutenant and the Provost of Trinity College as a wife, and she was greatly admired by Henry Grattan and Oliver Goldsmith. She disappeared from the public eye as wife of an Irish MP. At the right, a young Indian page in Oriental dress carries a cushion with two coronets, symbolising the title the Earl had just received.
Angelica Kauffman achieved remarkable success for a woman painter of her period. Under the patronage of Joshua Reynolds she became one of the leading artists in England, renowned for her allegorical subjects as well as her society portraits. She visited Ireland briefly during 1771, where she received numerous commissions, and one of the families she stayed with was that of the Earl of Ely at Rathfarnham Castle, for whom she painted this large family portrait.

March 2016
ProvenanceLoftus Hall, Co. Wexford; presented, John Henry Loftus, 4th Marquess of Ely, 1878 Exhibition HistoryDublin, 1873

Label TextHenry Loftus, Earl of Ely, stands beside his wife Frances gesturing towards his two nieces. The older girl, Dolly Monroe, a renowned beauty whose daily activities were reported by the press, wears classical costume. Her younger sister Frances plays a fashionable aria, ‘La Buona Figliuola’ from an opera by Niccolò Piccinni, on the harpsichord. At the right, a young Indian page in Oriental dress carries a cushion with two coronets, symbolising the title the Earl had just received. Kauffman began this portrait while staying with the family at Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin during her brief, but successful, visit to Ireland in 1771.