Piercy Roberts & John Stadler after Adam Buck

Olivia Primrose.

12 x 17.5

This is one of the most unusual, engaging and decorative of Adam Buck's portraits and is, perhaps, peak Jane Austen in its iconography. An attractive society beauty walks tentatively across a field in flimsy lilac pumps. She wears a full-length white dress with bright blue Bolero jacket, matching bonnet and an enormous muff. We do not know her identity beyond the titular title of Olivia Primrose, but her piercing blue eyes confront the viewer and betray a degree of confidence, making us intrigued to know where she is going on this chilly morning.



Buck's sentimental studies of men, women and especially children, were immensely popular in the late Georgian period. The concomitant and highly lucrative prints that followed became a staple in interior decoration throughout the Regency and would have certainly graced the bedroom of Emma Woodhouse and perhaps even the back parlour at Pemberley.