Yale Center for British Art, Bequest of Mrs. Harry Payne Bingham
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1987.6.2
Gallery Label:
This portrait was probably commissioned to mark the wedding of Mary Little to the successful London mercer of Ludgate Hill Robert Carr, who in 1777 was granted the form of hereditary knighthood known as a "baronetcy." Gainsborough, whose father was a weaver and whose sisters were milliners, revels in the description of his sitter's sacque or robe à la francaise, a fashionable style of dress with sumptuous panels sewn into the shoulders that, descending, formed a kind of train. The feathery rendering of the various fabrics and textures-especially the expensive, glossy, pink silk taffeta, which was known as "lute-string" or lustring-was especially appropriate since the sitter's new husband was a fabric merchant, highly dependent in his business dealings upon the demand for new silks, lace, and other profitable trends in Georgian fashion. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2005
