Mary Bootle, Mrs Wilbraham-Bootle (1734 - 1813)

By 1780, despite intense competition from his older contemporary Sir Joshua Reynolds, Romney's portraits were highly fashionable. Mary Bootle, inherited Lathom House and estate, Lancashire from her father Robert Bootle, four-time Director of the East India Company. After marrying her husband, Richard Wilbraham-Bootle MP, in 1755, the couple regularly commissioned Romney to paint family portraits. This companion portrait from 1781, showcases Romney's characteristic sensitivity to the surface qualities of skin, hair and fabric. Mary appears poised, looking out beyond the frame towards the accompanying portrait of her husband, now in the collection of the Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, Connecticut.

Credit: Purchased with the assistance of the Cowan Smith Bequest Fund 1927