Pompeo Batoni
, Italian, 1708-1787
Title
A Lady of the Leeson Family as a ShepherdessDate1751
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions
47 x 36 cm
Credit LineBequeathed, Sir Denis Mahon, through the British Fund for the National Gallery of Ireland, 2015
Object numberNGI.2016.8
Label TextIn mid-eighteenth-century portraiture there was a fashion for depicting aristocratic ladies in shepherdess costume. This woman could be Anne, the Earl of Milltown’s second wife, or his daughter Mary. Shown in classical dress, she holds a lamb, the symbol of Saint Agnes and purity. Batoni made his reputation as a painter of allegorical and religious pictures before taking up portraiture. This painting once formed part of the Milltown collection.