Description
Lady Stuart de Rothesay is dressed in a rich, red velvet dress and wears a turban and imposing jewellery. Her daughters, Charlotte (who holds a posy) and Louisa (with a parrot), stand on either side of her, dressed in virginal white.

Lady Stuart was the third daughter of Philip Yorke, Earl of Hardwicke. In 1816 she married Charles Stuart, the British Ambassador to France. The couple held lavish receptions at the Embassy in France, which frequently took the form of costumed balls . Lady Stuart’s delight in fancy dress is evident in this picture. Beneath her turban she may be wearing a wig of the type mentioned by her successor at the Embassy, Lady Granville, who described her as “agreeable and amiable, and by dint of rouge and an auburn wig looks only not pretty but nothing worse.” Despite both Lady Stuart and her husband being considered plain in appearance, their daughters were celebrated beauties.

The painter, Sir George Hayter, was born in London and studied at the Royal Academy from 1808. In 1815 he became painter of miniatures and portraits to Princess Charlotte. The following year he travelled to Italy with the support of the Duke of Bedford and was admitted to the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. Hayter was appointed Principal Painter-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria in 1841 and was knighted the following year. He died at his home on Marylebone Road, London, at the age of 78.