Ending Reynolds posts with my favourite female portrait that is perhaps my favourite painting by him in general : Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse, 1784.
I think I have posted it before, when I was writing about poor Thomas Gainsborough who painted her too; she was a Welsh actress, one of the greatest of her time, famous mainly for Shakespearean roles such as Lady Macbeth.
Read all about this painting here http://goo.gl/T1A9N