Miss Fordyce (Mrs Greenwood)

Joshua Reynolds's account book shows that Walter Radcliffe paid for this portrait. Miss Fordyce may have been his mistress during the early 1760s. The portrait references Italian paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries. When this portrait was made, Reynolds was fast becoming one of the most fashionable portrait painters in London. He had just moved into a larger studio; taken on an apprentice and begun publicly exhibiting. The portrait emphasises the sitter's feminine beauty and availability in her turned head and exposed décolletage. Around the same time it was made, Miss Fordyce's brother, Alexander, a London banker, became famous for making and then losing a fortune buying and short-selling shares in the East India Company.

1762-1763

Oil on canvas

760.0 x 628.0mm

2862