The Fitzwilliam Museum - University of Cambridge

56
Major Acquisitions
Jean-Étienne Liotard
(1702–1789)
Laura Tarsi, dressed ‘à la Turque’
c. 1740/41
Watercolour and bodycolour
on ivory
9.7 x 7.6 cm
Accepted by H.M. Government
in Lieu of Inheritance Tax from
the estate of the 9th Duke of
Rutland and allocated to the
Fitzwilliam Museum.
PD.9-2006
Swiss by birth, Liotard was among the
most cosmopolitan and well-travelled of
all eighteenth-century European artists,
working at various times of his life in
Paris, London, Rome, Constantinople,
Vienna and the Netherlands. In April 1738
he left Rome for Constantinople as part
of the entourage of John Montagu, 4th
Earl of Sandwich, and remained there
until 1742, immersing himself into the
local culture and, like the Earl, adopting
Turkish dress. This miniature was painted
around 1740–41 for John, Marquess of
Granby (1721–75), during his stay in
Constantinople, before he returned to
England at the end of 1741 to assume his
seat in Parliament for the borough of
Grantham. The identity of the sitter is
established from an inscription on the
gold frame which reads ‘Laura Tarsi, A
Grecian Lady’. No further details of her
life have emerged to date, but it is
thought that she was a member of the
close-knit Greek community at Pera;
family tradition has it that she was a
friend, or very possibly a mistress, of
Granby’s. Certainly, the unusually large
dimensions of the miniature and her
sumptuous dress suggest that it was
executed as a virtuoso performance by
Liotard as the record of the appearance
of a much-admired sitter.