John Michael Wright - Portrait of Grace Wilbraham, Countess of Dysart

Lady Dysart, who is shown here, was the daughter of Lady Wilbraham of Weston Park and she had married Lionel Tollemache, Earl of Dysart. Amongst the Dysart possessions was the fashionable Thames-side villa of Ham House, Surrey, which had been extensively altered for Lord Dysart's mother, the Duchess of Lauderdale. The artist Wright was well-known for showing his sitters in known settings and the formal garden, with its statue of Fortuna, formal beds and clipped topiary, has been identified as the garden at Ham. It was the type of garden that was highly fashionable in the generation before Capability Brown and he is often accused of sweeping away such gardens to create the pastoral landscapes for which he is famous.