About this artwork

The orphaned daughter of a British army officer, Mary Degg married a younger son of the Duke of Rutland in 1756. About 1767 she posed for Allan Ramsay in London, this portrait also being in the Galleries' collection. Aged eighty-nine, she sat to Lawrence, President of the Royal Academy and Europe’s leading portraitist. With its bravura handling and rich colour this regal portrait is among Lawrence’s most imposing studies of a high status but elderly sitter.

Updated 2021

  • artist:
  • title:
    Mary Degg, Lady Robert Manners (1737 - 1829)
  • date created:
    Exhibited 1826
  • materials:
    Oil on canvas
  • measurements:
    138.80 x 110.50 cm; Framed: 161.93 x 133.67 x 5.00 cm
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    Bequest of Mrs Nisbet Hamilton Ogilvy of Biel 1921
  • accession number:
    NG 1522
  • gallery:
  • depicted:
  • artwork photographed by:
    Antonia Reeve
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Sir Thomas Lawrence

Sir Thomas Lawrence