Description
The painting The Waldegrave Ladies by Joshua Reynolds is known for portraying three aristocratic English sisters: Charlotte, Elizabeth, and Anne Waldegrave. An interesting curiosity about this work is that, although Reynolds specialized in individual portraits, this time he decided to paint the three sisters together in the same scene.
Furthermore, the painting is said to have been commissioned by his father, the 9th Earl of Waldegrave, as a gift to his wife, the Countess. However, the mother of the sisters, Maria Walpole, was not happy with the result, considering that her eldest daughter, Charlotte, had been portrayed with too much emphasis and that the other two sisters had been relegated to the background. Despite this, the painting became a success, and Reynolds received numerous similar commissions.
Another interesting detail about The Waldegrave Ladies is that the painting was first exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1780, and became one of Reynolds' most popular portraits. In fact, the work was so popular that numerous copies and engravings of it were made, helping to spread the image of the Waldegrave sisters throughout England and Europe.
Furthermore, Reynolds is said to have used a special technique to create the illusion that the three sisters were sitting together in the same space. Rather than paint all three sisters together on a single canvas, Reynolds created three separate canvases, one for each sister, then joined them in a single frame to form a cohesive composition. In this way, the sisters appear to be sitting together in the same room, although in reality they were painted separately.
The Waldegrave Ladies is ranked no. 48 on the list of famous paintings