Lady Caroline Howard

In 1778 the Earl of Carlisle, Frederick Howard, was sent across the Atlantic at the head of a commission trying, and failing, to talk the rebelling American colonies out of independence. That same year he had Joshua Reynolds, the first president of the Royal Academy, paint his daughter Caroline, who was seven. She kneels in a landscape in a long white dress, reaching up to pull a rose from a bush set in a tall urn. The roses were a gentle piece of flattery, the flowers of Venus and the Graces, standing for beauty and love in a child not yet grown into them. Her father, away on his hopeless mission, called her a spirited, strong-minded girl who was always a great favourite of his.