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Large-scale painting depicting a woman in ornate red and gold dress and elaborate jewelry sits near a rocky cliffside overlooking a coastal bay.

Lady Caroline Montagu as a Brigand’s Wife

Gallery Location

Not currently on view

George Hayter

Aristocratic darling? Or dangerous outlaw? Portraits are more than likenesses—they’re performances. They allow a sitter to determine how they want to be seen and remembered. Beyond simple records of appearance, portraits provide insight into the values of their subjects and their communities. In this dramatic 19th-century portrait, Lady Caroline Montagu, costumed in the romanticized garb of an Italian peasant, surrounds herself with jewels and weapons. Her performance carefully balances seduction, power, and intrigue with demureness, wealth, and beauty. Lady Caroline’s portrait imagines a life of excitement far removed from her rather sedate role as a proper aristocratic British wife and mother. Her character references sensational stories of bands of Italian highwaymen who looted and murdered travelers, especially aristocrats. In paintings, theater productions, and travel narratives, these brigands and the women who loved them transformed into popular peasant folk heroes. Lady Caroline met her husband during a tour of Italy, and this may have inspired her costume. Her choice of such a daring character captures the contemporary British fascination with foreign people and places and with dramatic, emotionally charged art and literature. Portraiture allows people to role-play. Lady Caroline Montagu was a wealthy member of the British aristocracy. She signals this status through her modest pose, extravagant jewelry and costume, and the very fact she was able to afford such a grand portrait of herself. Her portrait also reflects how the British nobility more broadly positioned themselves in the world. Lady Caroline appears alongside figs (from the Mediterranean) and agave plants (from the Caribbean), which hint at Britain’s global reach and imperial power over subjects on faraway shores. Her appropriation of Italian peasant costume underscores the British belief in their cultural superiority to “backward” peoples. As a woman in this time and place, Lady Caroline could only pose as a seductive outlaw if her Christian virtue was also obvious. Other women in this gallery appear in different guises, including mother, daughter, goddess, muse, and saint, reflecting some conflicting ways Western society perceives women.
Artist/Maker
George Hayter
(English, 1792 - 1871)
Title
Lady Caroline Montagu as a Brigand’s Wife
Date
1831
Material & Process
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
77 1/4 x 57 3/4 in. Overall
Credit
Evjue Foundation Grant purchase in honor of Mrs. Frederick W. Miller
Inventory No.
1993.44
Classification
Paintings
Location
England

Related

1993, sold by Christopher Wood Gallery (London, England) to the Elvehjem Museum of Art [now called Chazen Museum of Art]

  • Noon, Patrick. "Constable to Delacroix: British Art and the French Romantics." London: Tate Britain, 2003.
  • Bryan, James E. "Sir George Hayter's Portrait of Lady Caroline Montagu." Bulletin/Biennial Report 1997-1999. Elvehjem Museum of Art (1999): 32-41. pp. 32-41
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "Bulletin/Annual Report 1993-1995." Madison: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 1995. p. 100
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "Artscene." Vol. 20, No. 2, July- December 2003. p. 9
  • Chazen Museum of Art. "Artscene." Vol. 27, No. 1, January-June 2010. p. 3
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "Bulletin/Biennial Report 1997-1999." Madison, WI: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 2000 p. 33
  • Chazen Museum of Art. "re:mancipation." Madison, WI: Chazen Museum of Art, 2024. pp. 77, 79, 81, 137
  • Bryan, James E. "Sir George Hayter, Portrait of Lady Caroline Montagu (d. 1892) in Byronic Costume, 1831." "Alter Ego Art History" (September 2021). https://alteregoarthistory.wordpress.com/2021/09/09/sir-george-hayter-portrait-of-lady-caroline-montagu-d-1892-in-byronic-costume/ (accessed September 26, 2025).

  • re:mancipation: Chazen Museum of Art, 2/6/2023–6/25/2023
  • Constable to Delacroix: British Art and the French Romantics: Tate Britain, 2/6/2003–5/11/2003

This large-scale painting depicts a woman with a light skin tone and brown hair seated on the ground in a rocky coastal landscape. She gazes directly forward with a closed-mouth smile. She wears a red headdress and an elaborate dress featuring a low-cut red and gold bodice, voluminous white sleeves tied at the shoulders with red and gold ribbons, and a long skirt striped in red, green, and blue. A long gold chain necklace drapes across her chest, complemented by ornate gold earrings that dangle toward her chin. The silver handle of a knife or dagger is tucked into a scarf or sash wrapped around her waist. Leaning slightly, she rests her left arm on a low surface draped in dark fabric, while her right hand lies on her lap, loosely holding a strand of rosary beads that spill onto the ground. To her left, in the lower right corner of the composition, a wooden distaff wound with wool leans against an open wooden box overflowing with pearl necklaces, colorful silk scarves, and other jewelry. A silver-and-gold revolver lies on the ground beside the box. Rising above her is a jagged rock face topped with green vegetation and a spiky plant. A tree branch with green leaves extends from the cliff, filling the upper left corner. To the woman’s left, the view opens onto a calm blue bay framed by distant, hazy mountains beneath a blue sky and billowing white clouds. On a sandy bank in the middle distance, several small figures can be seen walking or working along the shore.

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Information about artworks presented here may not reflect the most current research. Chazen staff update records as new details emerge; please verify independently for scholarly use and notify us of any errors.