YCBA Collections Search

Reynolds’s "sitter-book" records eight appointments with Lady Keppel. The woman who accompanies her had two independent morning sittings in December 1762 (both after Keppel had been painted). We do not know her name, in place of which Reynolds entered a single word—"negro"—in his notebook. This terse archival trace confirms that she, like Lady Keppel, was painted from life.

She is shown handing Keppel a garland of flowers with which to deck a statue of Hymen, the god of marriage. This detail alludes to Keppel’s recent role as a bridesmaid at the wedding of George III and Queen Charlotte. The dress worn by the servant may either be of glazed cotton, British silk, or possibly painted Chinese silk. If the woman was indeed Keppel’s servant, her dress may be a hand-me-down from her mistress, as was common in this period.

The portrait was paid for by Lady Keppel’s brother, the third Earl of Albemarle (1724–1772). Later the same year he commanded British forces at the Battle of Havana, which resulted in Spain’s surrender of Cuba. This key victory of the Seven Years’ War reshaped the balance of power in the Atlantic.

Gallery label for Figures of Empire: Slavery and Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Britain (Yale Center for British Art, 2014-10-02 - 2014-12-14)