William Dickinson after Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Diana Viscountess Crosbie.

15 x 25

There is much to unpack in this beautiful print. On the surface we have a stunning, albeit formulaic, Reynolds portrait of an aristocratic lady, the epitome of elegance and fashion. Dig a little deeper and we unearth an altogether more intriguing story. Diana Sackville was born in 1756, the daughter of Lord George Sackville, and became Viscountess Crosbie when she married the Viscount in 1777. Anyone who has read Trollope's wonderful masterpiece, 'The Way we Live Now', will be familiar with the plight of the much manipulated heiress Marie Melmotte and the way she was pimped out to impecunious aristocrats, (such as Lord Carbury) who were in search of a fortune to bolster their dwindling family coffers. Lord Crosbie was cock-a-hoop at the prospect of marrying Miss Sackville because (in his own words) "my marrying in this manner" would bring him "£10,000, which is indeed more than I thought her fortune would be, for the daughters of these great families have seldom more than six". Before her marriage, Diana Sackville was considered "conceited and disagreeable" according to her contemporary, Lady Louisa Stewart, but we don't know if this is just jealousy or rooted in a deeper character flaw. We also learn that once married she threw herself into the London scene, gambling and flirting alongside the likes of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, possibly the biggest socialite of her age. Later life brought more sobriety but sadly no children. She died in Ireland in 1814 having added the Countess of Glandoe to her titles. This portrait, commissioned in 1777 by her fiancé, takes us right back to the height of her beauty, a charming girl striding across an idyllic landscape in flowing robes and fashionably arranged coiffure.