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THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. (1727-1788) LADY INNES Canvas, 283/8 inches by 40 inches THREE-QUARTER length. Standing, turned half-way to the right; the eyes are directed toward the spectator. In her left hand she holds a rosebud, right arm hanging down by her side, hand holding a fold of her robe. Blue taffeta dress, trimmed with lace; narrow black velvet band round her throat, and small white plume in her hair. Landscape background with roses on the left. Sarah, daughter and heiress of Thomas Hodges of Ipswich, first wife of Sir William Innes, eighth Bart, captain of the Second Light Dragoons. She died May 15, 1770, leaving two daughters. Rimber's Baronetage of 1771 shows that William Innes, the husband of this lady, succeeded his brother, Sir Charles Innes of Balveny, Bart, in 1736, and married secondly, in 1774, a Miss Parsons. His two daughters by his first wife, were living in the late thirties of last century, and apparently dies unmarried. The portrait was formerly in the J. H. Dunn collection in London. It is a work of the Ipswich period, hitherto unre-corded in works on Gainsborough, and is of special interest because of its color-scheme, showing that at this early date-long prior to the painting of the "Blue Boy" Gainsborough had run counter to Sir Joshua Reynolds' aversion to blue as the predominant note in a portrait. 85 LS