Caroline Matilda Sotheron

This elegant portrait of Caroline Matilda Sotheron (née Caroline Matilda Barker, 1787–1812) depicts the sitter in her early twenties and was most likely painted on the occasion of her wedding. Caroline married Admiral Frank Sotheron of Kirklinton, Nottinghamshire, and Darrington Hall, Yorkshire, in 1808; however, she tragically died at the age of twenty-five in 1812, leaving her one-year-old child, Lucy, motherless.

This portrait, painted by foremost British portrait painter Thomas Lawrence, depicts Caroline Matilda in a simple white muslin dress in the Regency style, with a pink shawl draped over her arm. Her white skin and dress contrast dramatically with the deep-green and blue foliage of the garden in the background. As was customary during this period, Lawrence painted Caroline framed by a classical column. Lawrence’s portrait exaggerates his sitter’s proportions and features to conform to a standard of beauty popular in the early nineteenth century: her elegant, swan-like neck and long arms give her a refined appearance.

For over a century this portrait was thought to depict Caroline Matilda’s daughter, Lucy. A recent discovery of a miniature by John Wright (1745–1820), which is contemporary with, and based on, the Lawrence portrait, identified the sitter as the mother. The existence of a full-length portrait of Admiral Frank Sotheron by Lawrence suggests the pair were painted at the time of their wedding.

Maria Zagala, Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs