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The oil on canvas painting measures 219.7 × 153.7 cm (86.5 × 60.5 in). The depiction of full-figure portraits in nature was a speciality of 18th-century English artists, especially Gainsborough who delighted in painting landscapes; Elizabeth with her love for the English countryside was the ideal model for him.
The composition is diagonal and is in the grand manner genre. The NGA describes the work as "freely painted" and impressionistic in style. The sitter's garb and "the windblown landscape ... reflect the strong romantic component in Gainsborough's artistic temperament ... Her chin and mouth are firm, definite, and sculptural, and her heavily drawn eyebrows give her a steady, composed, and dignified expression. There is a hint of romantic melancholy in her eyes, with their slightly indirect gaze ... The painting is executed in liquid paint, blended wet into wet, applied in many layers in order to create a rich and sumptuous effect, with thin washes in free-flowing brushstrokes for the details."Although using an outside setting, it is not a conversation piece; it has a certain psychological depth brought about with the attention given to the details of dress and texture as testaments to worldly elegance and wealth. The model's hair is treated in the same manner as the leaves and branches of the trees in the background and some of the sunset's pink glaze is reflected in the colour of her gown. The lonely tree behind her matches her isolated figure and adds to the impression of the remoteness of the abandoned feminine figure in the deserted landscape; possibly longing for something she cannot achieve in her life. A shimmering transparent effect is given to the hand-held scarf by the use of long brush strokes and thin oil colour. The portrait captures the model's charming personality and fresh beauty; her face is the only part of the painting that is calm and solid. The paint is applied with soft and nervous, flying brush strokes. The artist is treating the surface of the woman's gown with long zigzagging brushes of thin oil paint all the way down to her feet, to achieve the vibrant effect, versus the calm of her face.The painting came into the possession of Harriet, Lady Robert Spencer (previously wife of Edward Bouverie) of Delapre Abbey, who were friends of the Sheridan's as a result, of Sheridan's money problems. In her diary on 12 March 1872, following the sale of the portrait by Harriet's grandson General Everard Bouverie to Alfred de Rothschild. Mrs. Caulfield, wife of the second son of the first Earl of Charlesmont wrote:-"I have heard today of the sale of the beautiful portrait of Mrs. Sheridan by Gainsborough, which I have gased at so often over the library fireplace at Delapré , and that it bought £3,000. Baron Rothschild being the purchaser. I think it well to note that that I heard from the father of the late General B., known as Squire Bouverie, the manner in which the picture came into the family. Sheridan was at the time in great money difficulties, and living next door to Lady Robert Spencer, Squire Bouverie's mother, when a seizure was made by the Sheriff. Sheridan's servant knew the value his master set on this picture of his beautiful wife, and he managed to detach it hurriedly from the frame (a very large one and to get it over the wall into Lady Robert Spencer's garden. Poor Sheridan was glad to save the picture from his creditors, and leave it in his fiend's hands, from whom he got advances of money until he should redeem it. That redemption never occurred, and so it became Bouverie property, and has now realised £3,000."The painting was subsequently owned by various members of the famous Rothschild banking family up until 1936, when it was sold to the Duveen Brothers, Inc., in London. The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh bought the artwork on 26 April 1937 and it was then donated to the National Gallery of Art.
Rothschild Duveen Brothers National Gallery of Art conversation piece Earl of Charlesmont Robert Spencer Edward Bouverie oil on canvas Alfred de Rothschild A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust portrait grand manner Delapre Abbey Everard Bouverie Harriet impressionistic in style