Julia Floyd was born, in 1795, in Madras (today Chennai), in India under British rule. Her family moved to Britain when she was a child. In 1820, she married Sir Robert Peel, a politician who would serve twice as Prime Minister and who was an avid collector of paintings. Peel commissioned a number of portraits from Sir Thomas Lawrence, the leading portraitist of the British school at the time. For this portrait, the artist appears to have been inspired by one of the paintings in Peel’s collection: Peter Paul Rubens’s portrait of Susanna Lunden, also known as “Le Chapeau de Paille.” It’s also dominated by an extravagant hat, vibrant red colors, and the piercing beauty of the subject. Like much of Peel’s collection, the Rubens portrait was left to the National Gallery in London.

Here, Lady Peel’s controlled expression is somewhat at odds with the flamboyance of her clothing and accessories: her black hat with cascading red feathers, the white fur or swan’s down and satin of her mantle and dress, her stacks of rings and bracelets, the burst of red of the camellia tucked in at her chest. She appears to be in “fancy dress” rather than in the fashion of the day. Exhibited at the Royal Academy, in 1827, this painting was judged by one critic as being among “the highest achievements of modern art.”