I have today recieved some information about Mrs Catherine Swindell from the Curator if Fine Art at Leicester Museum, Julia Collieu.

I thought you might be intersted to share.

"The sitters name is inscribed on a label on the back of teh picture in waht appears to be an early nineteenth century hand;but so far she has eluded a;; attempts at further identification.

She may be a Liverpool rather than a Derbyshire sitter;and Wright's list of "Sitters at Liverpool 1769 " is known to be imcomlete.She may of course appear in Wrights Account Book under her maiden name,so far unknown.

The portrait is one of teh best and most charactrful of all Wright's portraits of women.Inevitabel changes in the picturee's surface over two centuries enable us to see how Wright modelled the face:in particular, the greenish glazes around the nosr and cheekbones and the strengthening line around the jaw have become more noticable.

In his broadcast talk on Wright in 1969, David Piper described Catherine Swindells portrait thus:"She's shown to teh waist, in low-cut rose silk,dark hair piled uphigh,all got up in her best( the pearls are perhaps not hers but supplied by Wright).This so far is very conventional-Thomas Hudson could have [ainted it.But in the face,turned nearly profile o the left, things start to happen that are very unconventional.This is no flawless oval, fashion-made - but a most individual mouth pouting firwards, pinched in at the sides; a grey-green eye cocked and appraising, and a nose as quirky, postulating volubility,as a duck's tail.One can almost hear the tone of chatter......."

So- Tori- the dark line round her jaw is not makeup after all;merely the effects of the picture reacting to light for 200 years! ;-)

I found this very intesting.Thanks for making me look it all up!