Lady Mary Wortley Montagu by Jonathan Richardson Senior (c1718). Courtesy SGMT
The life of the renowned 18th century traveller, author and socialite, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, is being illuminated in an exhibition at Sheffield’s Graves Art Gallery.
The show, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: An Extraordinary 18th Century Woman, runs until June 3 2007 and is the first exhibition to focus specifically on this fascinating character.
Lady Mary was born in 1689, the daughter of the 5th Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull and Mary Fielding (cousin of the author Henry Fielding).
Edward Wortley Montagu by George Romney. Courtesy SGMT
In 1712 she eloped with Edward Wortley Montagu and later became a key figure in the introduction of the smallpox inoculation in England, a practice she came across when living in Constantinople while Edward was ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
Mary had suffered from smallpox herself and had also lost a brother to the disease. After successfully inoculating her daughter in England in 1721 the practice was copied by other aristocrats and eventually became widespread.
She left Edward Wortley Montagu in 1739 and spent many years travelling in Europe, writing hundreds of letters on her experiences and on the work of other writers like Alexander Pope, Samuel Richardson and Jonathan Swift.
Her contemporary Joseph Spence described her as “one of the most extraordinary characters in the world”, although she was reviled as much as admired for her forthright views and personality.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu with her son, Edward Wortley Montagu, and attendants attributed to Jean Baptiste Vanmour. © National Portrait Gallery
The exhibition itself brings together a selection of Lady Mary’s original letters from the Sheffield City Archives along with several paintings and prints depicting her and her family, friends and adversaries, drawn from London’s National Portrait Gallery, the V&A, Dulwich Picture Gallery and other collections.
Key exhibits include the stunning portrait, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, by Jonathan Richardson from Sheffield City Collection, and a portrait of her son, Edward Wortley Montagu by George Romney.
Romney’s portrait was given to Sheffield as part of the government’s Acceptance in Lieu Scheme in 2005, whereby important works of art can be gifted in lieu of inheritance tax.
