A pale-skinned woman is shown from the waist up within an oval opening in this vertical portrait painting. The woman’s body is angled to our right, but she turns her face to look off to our left with gray eyes. She has a thin, oval-shaped face, a long nose, and her dark pink lips are closed. Her ash-brown hair is swept up and back from her forehead, and some curls hang down the back of her neck. A sheer veil drapes over her hair and down around her sloping shoulders. The bodice of her ivory-yellow gown is cut low and lined with lace. Pearls ornament the front of the dress and part of the…
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Mrs. John Taylor

Thomas Gainsborough (British, 1727 - 1788)

c. 1778

Medium
oil on canvas
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
overall (oval): 76 x 64 cm (29 15/16 x 25 3/16 in.)
Culture
British
Museum
National Gallery of Art, CAB
Credit line
Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Rights
Public domain (NGA Open Access, CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed

View at the National Gallery of Art

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