Eva Maria ('Violette') Veigel, Mrs David Garrick (1724-1822) with a Mask

attributed to Johann Zoffany, RA (Frankfurt am Main 1733 - Kew 1810). Oil painting on canvas, Eva Maria Veigel, Mrs David Garrick (1724-1822) with a Mask, attributed to Johann Zoffany, RA (Frankfurt am Main 1733 - Kew 1810). A three-quarter-length portrait of a young woman identified as the Austrian dancer Eva Maria Veigel whose stage name was Violette, given to her by Empress Maria Theresa. She became the wife of the actor theatre manager David Garrick (1717-1779) whom she married in 1749 having come to England for the first time with little English in 1746. She is turned to the right, gazing at the spectator, holding a mask in her left hand, her hair dressed with a white ribbon, and wearing a white satin skirt with a blue satin short coat under a gold short-sleeved coat. Drapes in the background to the left. In his book 'Book for a Rainy Day' by J. T. Smith (1766–1833) described seeing the picture soon after Garrick's death in the dining room on one side of the chimneypiece and stated it was painted by Zoffany. Polesden Lacey, Surrey (Accredited Museum)