Margaret Woffington

An elegant lady with a wide-brimmed, lace-trimmed black hat, a blue-grey dress and a black cloak shows herself in semi - profile to the observer. Her face is turned to him, and her large eyes have a seductive and at the same time melancholic look.

According to the inscription on the reverse the sitter is Margaret "Peg" Woffington (approx.1718-1760) after a model by William Hogarth. ¹ The actress, originating from poor circumstances in Dublin, made her career in London in the 1740s. She lived together with David Garrick, the most significant British actor in his day. Woffington had several affairs on the side and was known for her ready wit. She was well-liked because of her generosity and kindliness and rated among her friends many artists from the stage of London and Dublin.

Nathaniel Hone, likewise born in Dublin, had been a very proliferous miniaturist. This miniature is striking because of its bold but still rather cool main colours of blue-grey and black contrasting with each other. The lady's face is moulded in delicate blue and grey strokes, and her warm complexion stands out against the rest of the picture. Her clothes and her hat are most vividly rendered and attest in their arrangement of the folds and the brilliance of the fabric to a masterful execution.

J.S.O.

¹ Hogarth's painting in the Metropolitan Art Museum, New York, shows, however, only little resemblance with this miniature portrait, thus could not have served as its model. Yet other portraits of Margaret Woffington are definitely in consistence with the miniature at hand: on this the lady is pictured in a black hat, though not as sweeping as this one, over a white bonnet and with a remarkable melancholic look, for example the portrait of Peter von Bleek (National Portrait Gallery, inv.-no. NPG D 4879) and that of John Lewis (National Portrait Gallery, inv.-no. NPG 5729).