Elizabeth and Mary Linley

Elizabeth and Mary LinleyElizabeth and Mary Linley were both professional singers. They were daughters of the composer, Tom Linley the elder, and sisters of the most distinguished musician in the family, the composer and friend of Mozart, Tom Linley the younger. Elizabeth (seen here standing) later married the playwright, Richard Brinsley Sheridan. This painting is more about their characters than their singing careers. They have sought out this secluded woody bank not just

and is asleep in a golden suit of armour (derived from a drawing by Poussin after the antique)

rendered with illusionistic detail

The dating of the canvas is highly debated

1911) saw the picture he thought it represented 'the [3rd] building earl & his sister but was doubtful about it after

or 'Bucintoro' was the great Venetian vessel of state

We see a tired traveller huddled in a corner

Sir Kenelm was so distraught that he summoned Van Dyck to record the transitory beauty of her corpse

suggesting that the site is a real one

he was also a playwright

but the sitter does not resemble the known likenesses of the celebrated English navigator Sir Martin Frobisher (1535

Fairfax Murray also gave Spanton the 1870 volume of Rossetti's poems

Saint Catherine is shown in the habit of a Dominican tertiary with a crown of thorns