Portrait of a Lady, traditionally identified as Marguerite, Countess of Blessington (1784-1849), three-quarter-length, seated, in a white dress, holding a birdcage, in a wooded landscape, a cottage beyond

The authoress, Margaret, Countess of Blessington, was the second daughter of Edmund Power of Curragheen and Cleona, Co. Waterford. She married, first, Maurice St. Leger Farmer, who died in 1817, and secondly, in 1818, the 1st Earl of Blessington as his second wife. She was a friend of Byron and maintained a notable salon at Gore House for many years.
Thomas Clement Thompson, a founder member of the Royal Hiberian Association, settled in London in 1817 and became a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy and British Institution. His portraits ranged from members of the Irish peerage and gentry to actresses such as Elizabeth O'Neill, later Lady Wrixon Becher.