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Nancy Parsons was one of the most famous courtesans of the eighteenth century. Her aristocratic clients included the young Duke of Grafton, prime minister between 1768 and 1770. Parsons was often seen with the married duke in public until they split in 1769, something that attracted criticism but which also gave them both an aura of transgressive glamour. Her image circulated widely in everything from fine engravings to scurrilous satirical prints. In this seductive portrait by George Willison, she is represented “à la Turque,” that is, in a fanciful western appropriation of Ottoman costume at a time when the Ottoman Empire was regarded as decadent, enervated by luxury and pleasure. Parsons had taken the Duke of Dorset as her lover when Willison painted this portrait, and it was reproduced immediately in mezzotint by the Irish engraver James Watson.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2022

Annabella Parsons (ca. 1735–1814/15), also known as Nancy, was a celebrated beauty of London’s demi-monde in the late eighteenth century. Horace Walpole described her as “the Duke of Dorset’s Mrs. Horton, the Duke of Grafton’s Mrs. Horton, everybody’s Mrs. Horton.” Mr. Horton (or Haughton) was a West Indies slave merchant; it is not clear that they ever married, but Annabella Parsons was said to have lived with him in Jamaica. She was also painted by Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds. Willison’s decision to portray her in Turkish-style dress is a testament to the sexually alluring and risqué connotations that such costumes could convey, most obviously by alluding to the harem, a subject that fascinated the British imagination. This portrait was also published as an engraving and would have further enhanced Nancy’s reputation as a high-class courtesan. In 1776 she married Charles, 2nd Viscount Maynard.
George Willison is best known for the portraits he painted during his stay in India from 1774 to 1780, mostly at the court of the nawab of Arcot but also for his bitter enemy the rajah of Tanjore. The resulting portraits were often used as diplomatic gifts to the British. The portrait of Nancy Parsons dates from before this period in Willison’s career but shows that he already had an interest in exotic dress.

Gallery label for Lure of the East - British Orientalist Painting (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-02-07 - 2008-04-28)