Francesco Bartolozzi after Sir Joshua Reynolds

The Honourable Miss Bingham

8 x 10 inches

One of the most attractive society beauties of the late 1780s. Lady Elizabeth Foster was the daughter of the Bishop of Derry, 4th Earl of Bristol. She married Thomas Foster in 1776 but made a second, more advantageous marriage to the 5th Duke of Devonshire in 1809. Her marriage to Foster was not a happy one and she sought refuge in Devonshire House in London where she was befriended by Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire and her husband the 5th Duke. There then began a very unconventional ménage a trois whereby Elizabeth Foster bore the Duke two children whilst remaining firm friends with the Duchess. The Duke died in 1811, soon after their marriage and in her later life she spent much time in Italy, finally dying in 1824.

Francesco Bartolozzi was born in Florence in 1728 and died in Lisbon in 1815. He began his working life by reproducing the works of Italian painters but came to England in 1764 where he was commissioned to reproduce Guercino's drawings in the Royal Collection. After this he turned his hand to stipple engraving, the medium for which he is best remembered. He set up a studio in London from which he produced a vast number of engravings that became known as 'Furniture Prints'. It is thought that Bartolozzi produced in excess of two thousand different prints but he is perhaps best remembered for his renderings of classical, allegorical and mythological subjects after his fellow Italian artists, Angelica Kauffman and Giovanni Cipriani.