Finally, in the sixth painting, The Lady’s Death (the name on its frame: The suicide of the countess), the countess poisons herself in her grief and poverty-stricken widowhood, after her lover is hanged at Tyburn for murdering her husband. An old woman carrying her baby allows the child to give her a kiss, but the mark on the child’s cheek and the caliper on her leg suggest that disease has been passed onto the next generation. The countess’s father, whose miserly lifestyle is evident in the bare house, removes the wedding ring, the only valuable possession his late daughter has left, from her finger. There is a wonderful view though the window of old London Bridge just before the houses were demolished in 1761.
Original stained softwood frame, overall dimensions: 15 ⅞” by11 ⅞”
Condition: Pretty good with just a few small patches where the paint has worn