This painting was chosen by Zara Kesterton, Masters student of Art History (Dress & Textiles) at the University of Glasgow, who writes:

“This portrait of Isabella, Countess of Hertford, was painted in Paris in 1765 by the Swedish artist Alexander Roslin. Isabella was married to the British Ambassador to France, and probably purchased the striking French court dress she wears in the portrait for her formal presentation at Versailles. This beautiful painting caught my eye four years ago while I was writing my undergraduate dissertation on the silk industry of eighteenth-century Lyon. I chose it for my title page as a magnificent example of French floral silk. I was delighted to stumble across Isabella in the Hunterian Art Gallery when I first arrived in Glasgow to start my master’s in Dress and Textile Histories. It felt like meeting an old friend!”

© The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

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