Elizabeth and Mary Linley

In Bath in the early 1770s, the Linley sisters were something close to pop stars, daughters of a musical clan the town nicknamed the Nest of Nightingales, and Elizabeth, on the left with a guitar, was among the most admired singers in England. Gainsborough knew the family well and painted the two of them here around 1772, the only picture that shows the sisters together. Within a year Elizabeth ran off to France with the young playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan, a scandal that filled the papers. Mary had never liked her own likeness, so when Gainsborough had the canvas back in his studio in 1785 he softened the hair and the dress, and this time she was pleased with it.