Signora Giovanna Baccelli

Thomas Gainsborough (after) 1727 - 1788

Summary

Portrait of Giovanna Baccelli whole-length to right, dancing, eyes to front, holding her skirts out with her left hand and with her right foot forward; wearing frilled and ribboned dress and her hair full; in landscape, with tambourine at left After the oil painting 'Giovanna Baccelli' exhibited 1782 and now in the Tate collection. This portrait shows the famous Ventian ballet dancer Giovanna Zanerini, whose stage name was Baccelli, at the height of her career as a principal ballerina in London. Her costume appears to be adapted from the ballet 'Les Amants Surpris' in which she had recently taken London by storm. She was the mistress of John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset, who commissioned the painting.