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the Ligonier paintings

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Edward, Second Viscount Ligonier

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Penelope, Viscountess Ligonier

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both portraits painted in 1771

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located at The Huntington Art Collections in California

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outstanding examples of 18th century portraiture

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fine examples of the gendered culture of sensibility

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Gainsborough painted a number of portraits of the gentry and landed aristocracy

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in which horses take a prominent position

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Ligonier's father George Pitt

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founded library at Oxford

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commissioned for Gainsborough to paint both paintings

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Painting #1: Edward, Second Viscount Ligonier

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presents Lord Ligonier in quotidian mode, as an everyday man of sensibility

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he is relaxed and leaning against his horse

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the horse is place more prominently in the composition than its master

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and addresses the viewer in a more engaging way

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British portraitists grappled with teh problem of introducing horses into human portraiture without physically dwarfing the man or woman who constitutes the portrait's principal subject

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avoided direct comparisons of the human sitter and his or her equine companion

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often relegating the horse to a marginalized position within the picture

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but Gainsborough took pains to give the two figures equal prominence

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made comparisons between Lord Ligonier and his horse inescapable

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the placement of the Viscount's raised right arm

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his dangling hat

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his flaring coat

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server to cut off the receding hindquarters of the horse

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so that it appears to stand upright on two legs like the man beside it

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the horse attracts the eyes as much as the gentleman does

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the horse is made to take on some of the characteristics of femininity

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ingratiating femininity (intended to gain approval or favor)

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the soulful gaze

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the horses alertly cocked ears

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the romantically flowing forelock invest the creature with an uncanny appearance of sympathetic sensitivity

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the horse is threatening to upstage its master as the primary subject of the picture

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or it may be a way to emphasize the quality of the man of sensitivity of one who is kind and attentive to the horses on which he depended

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Viscount Ligonier was the owner of a large stable of horses

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known to spend large periods of time in the company of his animals

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Ligioner is presented in a very relaxed, if not slightly roguish pose

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legs astride

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while his mare stands neatly and and modestly by his side

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perhaps Gainsborough simply intended to accurately represent Ligonier with a loved mare

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his portrait is not unsympathetic to Viscount Ligonier

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the portrait is a celebration of the mare and her master

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an informal and very lively portrait of a country gentleman with his horse

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Painting #2: Penelope, Viscountess Ligonier

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painted in early 1771

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the culture of sensibility was itself a culture of women

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two sides of the culture of sensibility's orientation toward reform were

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1. the liberation of women from their internalized and brutally enforced limitation

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2. reformation of men

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both stemmed in part from the reformist impulses of women who sought to change mild manners from the vice, profanity, wantonness in the dueling culture of the masculine sphere

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to a way of life that celebrated virtue, abstemiousness, piousness, charity, homeliness, and an appreciation of the arts

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these values were generally considered to be feminine

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its fundamental intention was to reshape men

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although each sex was to be softened and sensitized

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some proponents of the culture of sensitivity claims that women were capable of all things

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"there is no labor of the brain which women are not as capable of performing at least as well as men"

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female sexuality was also emerging as a subject for scientific debate

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some theorists of sensibility argued that women as well as men had a sex drive, and that women had a sexual appetite that was as innate as that of men

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the heroines of the 18th century novels show that they wish for and need sexuality

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but with a partner tested for civility, gentleness and mutuality

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novels were full of elopement and of clandestine correspondence between women avoiding authoritarian husbands and their lovers

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with the emergence of woman's self-assertive consciousness came a concern over what was described as the woman of unbridled sexual sensibility, especially among literate women

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one of the reasons that the novel came under attack was that reading them could sexually arouse women and this made marriages uncontrollable

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there are few portraits of this quality painted of women in 18th century Britain that are associated this level of sexual scandal

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less than three months after the portraits were complete and while they were still on exhibition at the Royal Academy

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Viscount Ligonier fought a duel with his wife's lover, Count Vittorio Alfieri

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Lady Ligonier fled to France

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the Viscount sued for divorce

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dueling was one of the practices which the culture of sensibility sought to outlaw

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in this sense Viscount Ligonier failed the test of sensibility

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Count Vittorio Alfieri

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was more a man of sensibility

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poet and playwright

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the founder of Italian tragedy

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but him seducing Lady Ligonier and then leaving her would certainly not qualify him as a man of feeling

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Gainsborough noted that he was forced in accepting this commission

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he completed the portraits under some duress

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a number of characteristics in these portraits suggest that Gainsborough noticed the difficulty in relationship between the two sitters

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and made a subtle commentary upon it in his paintings

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Viscountess Ligonier stares in a very determined way out of the picture plane

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and away from the viewer

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refusing to meet our gaze

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her look is independent and aloof

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her manner so decisive as it might be defined as defiant

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her attitude seems at odds with that of a demure and happy wife

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or perhaps she's merely lost in determined thought

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included attributes associated with passion

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the shell motif prominently placed on the pedestal behind Lady Ligonier

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a symbol of Venus

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resting upon the pedestal is a statue of a naked, dancing, bacchant

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Penelope is dressed in a Roman-style costume

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she pulls the skirt of her costume with her right hand to her hip, revealing her petticoat

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all of these features suggest that Penelope has had or will have her way in love

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Gainsborough is sexualizing Lady Ligonier

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showing her as a fashionable and independent woman of her time

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but Penelope's father hung this picture in his house suggesting that there was nothing particularly provocative in the way his daughter had been presented