Isabella Wolff
Sir Thomas Lawrence (English, 1769-1830)
1803–15
View the original$16
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Materials & printing
Archival matte paper, 189 g/m² (10.3 mil), sourced from Japan, printed with multicolor water-based inkjet so every brushstroke stays crisp. Framed prints arrive ready to hang in a .75″ ayous-wood frame with an acrylite front.
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About this work
Produced over the course of 12 years, this portrait depicts Isabella Wolff, one of Sir Thomas Lawrence’s most intimate friends, contemplating a printed image of the Delphic Sibyl from Michelangelo’s famous Sistine Chapel ceiling. Wolff’s serpentine pose cleverly echoes another Sibyl from that same work. The Sibyls were priestesses of Classical legend who made enigmatic judgments and prophecies. They were often pictured according to Western fantasies of the Near East, hence Wolff’s elaborate turban here. Lawrence was famed for his ability to evoke the surface effects and textures of clothing; that talent is on full display in Wolff’s shimmering satin gown.
- Artist
- Sir Thomas Lawrence (English, 1769-1830)
- Date
- 1803–15
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Origin
- England
- Style
- nineteenth century
- Collection
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Reference
- 1922.4461 · Art Institute of Chicago