Hester Lynch Piozzi (née Salusbury, later Mrs Thrale)
- Artist: Unknown Italian artist
- Date: 1785-1786
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 29 3/4 in. x 24 3/4 in. (756 mm x 629 mm)
- Portrays: Hester Lynch Piozzi (née Salusbury, later Mrs Thrale)
- Museum: The National Portrait Gallery
- Collection record: The National Portrait Gallery website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is “Hester Lynch Piozzi (née Salusbury, later Mrs Thrale).” In the canvas you see a woman seated in soft light, her face calm but eyes bright. She wears an extravagant Italian headdress—floral and jeweled—showing how she celebrated life in Rome with her second husband, Gabriel Piozzi. The painter’s brushwork is loose yet controlled; the gilt rim frames the scene like a gilded mirror.
The portrait was finished between 1785 and 1786 while Hester lived in Rome. After marrying her son’s music teacher she embraced an itinerant life—journals of bugs in inns and coffee at Venetian tables eventually went to print. The work is a fine example of late‑18th‑century Italian portraiture, rendered by an unknown artist who captured both fashion and personality.
See it in person
Hester Lynch Piozzi (née Salusbury, later Mrs Thrale) is in the collection of The National Portrait Gallery at St Martin's Place, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
