Willem Wissing, ca. 1656–1687, Dutch, active in Britain (by 1676)
Title:
Elizabeth FitzGerald, Countess of Kildare
Date:
ca. 1684
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
49 1/2 x 39 3/4 inches (125.7 x 101 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1984.19.1
Gallery Label:
Elizabeth FitzGerald (née Jones) was born into a prominent Anglo-Irish family. Her father, the Earl of Ranelagh, was a dissolute rake, eventually impeached for misappropriating government funds to support his lifestyle, while her mother’s wealth was derived from the slave-based economy in the new colony of Barbados. In this portrait, Willem Wissing depicts the sitter in the benign guise of a shepherdess tending to her flock while dressed in sumptuous textiles, coy and demure in an imagined Arcadian landscape that blurs the lines between fantasy and reality. It is likely that this portrait commemorates her marriage to the Earl of Kildare, another member the Irish aristocracy, in 1684, a match that proved childless.\n\n Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2017