page_title: Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster
hierarchical_section_title: Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster
caption_attribution_description: Hand-colored 1891 mezzotint engraving by Henry T Greenhead of Lawrence's portrait of Lady Elizabeth Leveson-Gower, later Marchioness of Westminster, wife of the 2nd Marquess of Westminster. Lawrence's portrait was painted when she was 21, before her marriage. Charles Robert Leslie considered this portrait to be "the most beautiful of Lawrence's female heads," and a perfect example of how his best portraits were sometimes the ones he worked on only briefly. Lawrence completed this portrait in one two-hour sitting. In 1881, Lady Westminster recalled Lawrence and her sitting for the portrait 63 years before: "His manners were what is called extremely 'polished' (not the fault of the present times). He wore a large cravat, and had a tinge about him of the time of George IV., pervading his general demeanor. . . . I should not say he was amusing, but what struck me most, during my two hours sitting in Russell Square, was the perfection of the drawing of his portraits. Before any color was put on, the drawing itself was so perfectly beautiful that it seemed almost a sin to add any color." Lawrence painted her seated half-length, body facing front with head turned in three-quarter profile to right; wearing a sheer gauze over-dress with long full ruffled sleeves over a white satin slip with short puffed sleeves and a thin blue sash under the bust, no jewels except for a small brooch at the bust, and her black hair in a topknot with ringlets.
context_page_description: Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster KG PC, styled The Honourable Richard Grosvenor from 1795 to 1802, Viscount Belgrave from 1802 to 1831 and Earl Grosvenor from 1831 to 1845, was an English politician, landowner, property developer and benefactor.
context_section_description: Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster KG PC (27 January 1795 – 31 October 1869), styled The Honourable Richard Grosvenor from 1795 to 1802, Viscount Belgrave from 1802 to 1831 and Earl Grosvenor from 1831 to 1845, was an English politician, landowner, property developer and benefactor.
caption: Elizabeth, Marchioness of Westminster, by Sir Thomas Lawrence.
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