Mary Little, later Lady Carr

Thomas Gainsborough, 1727–1788

ca. 1765

Oil on canvas

Yale Center for British Art

Mary Little was from a small village just outside Bath, a fashionable spa town in the southwest of England. With a confident gaze and small smile, she holds a nosegay of blooming myrtle and pink flowers, a popular symbol of betrothal, suggesting this portrait was made around the time of her marriage to Robert Carr, one London’s most successful silk merchants. As a weaver’s son, Gainsborough had an expert understanding of fabrics and rendered with great skill the luster of his sitter’s silk taffeta dress, the delicacy of her lace, and the sparkle of her diamond jewelry. This portrait is in effect a dual celebration of both the painte