IN 1786, British portraitist Thomas Gainsborough completed this portrait of the wife of the playwright and politician, Richard Brinsley Sheridan. The reproduction here does not come close to capturing the loveliness and interest of the rendered scene, with Elizabeth Linley Sheridan elegantly perched on a boulder overshadowed by foliage, billowing clouds in the distance. The expression on her face is serious and serene. As Sister Wendy Beckett wrote:

Her loneliness and elusive charm are conveyed to us in her portrait. Only the grave and lovely face is solid; all else is thin, diaphonous, unstable. Her mood is echoed by the wistful melancholy of the setting sun. (Sister Wendy’s History of Painting, p. 243) 

In this age of smiley faces, it is a relief to view portraits of the unsmiling. When did it become unacceptable to have one’s picture taken without an enormous grin? A smile does not contentment make.

Mrs. Sheridan was a celebrated singer when she eloped with Sheridan, who later was unfaithful to her. She is famous for having said to him: “Take me out of the whirl of the world, place me in the quiet and simple scenes of life I was born for.” Mrs. Sheridan’s unleashed hair in this painting suggests someone with a fanatic heart who could not happily be confined to the drawing room.

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