Replying to Radstock's enquiry about the portrait of his cousins. He regularly saw the
Duke and
Duchess of Gloucester in Rome and painted
Prince William and
Sophia, Princess of Gloucester. When the Duchess commissioned him to paint the three Ladies Waldegrave [
Charlotte ,
Elizabeth and
Anna] he believed he had freedom to work as he wished. His practice was always that if portraits were not acceptable they should not be paid, and the Duchess disapproved of the figures being revealed so through the drapery. The picture is at
Mr. Gifford's but needs cleaning. He is happy for the picture to go to
Lord Euston, and were his health not so poor he would allow it as a gift.
Annotated by Humphry that the letter "was intended" for Radstock.