Portrait of Lady Margaret Beaumont

In May 1778, Sir George Howland Beaumont married Margaret Willes (1758–1829), granddaughter of Lord Chief Justice John Willes. The union was marked by lifelong devotion to each other and to the arts. Attractive and enthusiastic, Lady Beaumont was described by a contemporary as a “young woman with some genius and a prodigious eagerness for knowledge and information.” Sir George Beaumont had a long-standing friendship with Sir Joshua Reynolds; it is not surprising that his wife sat for a portrait by the master shortly after their marriage.