Portrait of the Hon. Frances Courtenay, Lady Honywood (b.1763) and her Daughter

This sensitive double portrait of a mother and child used to hang at Powderham Castle in Devon. Lady Honywood was the eldest daughter of William Courtenay, the 2nd Earl of Devon and the portrait was probably painted as a gift to her family after she had settled with her husband Sir John Honywood in Kent. The portrait is noted in 1784 in Sir Joshua Reynolds’s pocket book where he would make appointments for sittings. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy that year, where it was acclaimed by the art critics of the day.