J. R. Smith after Sir Joshua Reynolds

[Lady Caroline Scott]

15 x 21 inches

Lady Caroline Scott (1774-1854) was the 3rd daughter of the Duke of Buccleuch and his wife Elizabeth. She married Sir Charles Douglas in 1803 who eventually became the Marquess of Queensbury. The painting dates from 1776 and was exhibited at the Royal Academy that year. Sir Horace Walpole described the portrait in his notebook from the exhibition as "charming and natural". The young Caroline is depicted against a wintery backdrop with a pet dog at her feet.

John Raphael Smith was born in Derby in 1752, the youngest son of the landscape painter, Thomas Smith, who was known as 'Smith of Derby'. He travelled to London at the time of his father's death in 1767 and after a period of shop work began his career as an artist. He began work as a painter of both miniatures and larger scale paintings but went on to develop his skill as an engraver. In 1781 he moved to a studio in Oxford Street and by 1784 he had been appointed as mezzotint engraver to the Prince of Wales. By 1787 he had settled permanently in Covent Garden, until his death in Doncaster in 1812. Smith's engravings count amongst the most admired examples of mezzotint. He published after his own designs but also after other artists and engravers.