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Follow Lady Sarah’s outstretched arm and dish to the smoking tripod and the statue of the Graces above, then look down at the girl pouring at the right.
Charles Bunbury commissioned this portrait of his bride-to-be, Lady Sarah, who makes an offering at a smoking altar before a statue of the Three Graces, attendants of Venus. Reynolds, a few years before he became the first president of the Royal Academy, often gave sitters classical robes and poses; Tate credits him with bringing the grand manner of history painting into portraiture.
Oil on canvas · 242.6 × 151.5 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Neoclassicism
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Lady Sarah Bunbury Sacrificing to the Graces
- Artist
- Sir Joshua Reynolds (English, 1723–1792)
- Date
- 1763–65
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 242.6 × 151.5 cm (95 1/2 × 59 3/4 in.)
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Kimball Collection
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.