Portraits of Elizabeth Craven - Good, Bad and Dubious
Engraving by William Ridley, based on Sir Joshua Reynolds' portrait of Elizabeth Craven. What did Elizabeth Craven really look like? There are quite a lot of surviving portraits of her, but they are not very like each other. When she was aged sixteen, she was painted by the Continental artist Angelica Kauffman, who was only in her early twenties herself. Kauffman was an exception to the rule that all professional artists had to be men, and her depictions of society ladies as mythological goddesses were fashionable in Georgian high society. She chose to portray Elizabeth in the guise of Hebe, goddess of Youth, in classical robes that show off her dazzling white skin and delicate hands. The features are indistinct and somewhat conventionalized, but if you compare them to the next picture, an oil sketch by George Romney, it is plausible that both depict the same person. Lady with a Lyre: Elizabeth Craven by George Romney c.1770....