18th Century English School, Lady Catherine Mary Manners as a child - by Sir Joshua Reynolds RA

Sir Joshua Reynolds painted Lady Forrester - nee Lady Catherine Mary Manners, Daughter of the Duchess of Rutland - on at least four occasions as a child and in later life.

Her face is painted particularly delicately.

The picture set within its original decoratively moulded gilt gesso pierced frame decorated with acanthus leaves. Various numbers, in an early script, to reverse of frame.

The portrait is of a young girl in a lace cap and the reverse is inscribed with 'Lady Catherine Forrester for Lady Mary Isobella Somerset, Dutchess of Rutland'.

Further inscribed 'Sir Joshua Reynolds'

The frame with a previous owner's label 'The Marquise of Ormonde, 11 Bryanston Square’.

The Marquis of Ormonde leased 11 Bryanston Square in 1925.

There is an 18th century connection by marriage between the families of the Duke of Rutland and of the Marquis of Ormonde which may well explain the ownership by the Marquis of Ormonde in London in 1925