Nelly O'Brien (courtesan)

Nelly O'Brien (c. 1739[1] – c. 1768) was a courtesan,[2] best known for having been painted by the artist Sir Joshua Reynolds.

She was an actress before becoming a courtesan, and for some time may have been the mistress of Augustus Keppel, who introduced her to Reynolds.

A record in the burial register for St Ann's, Blackfriars - dated December 29, 1767 and stating "Eleanor O'Brien, aged 29" - may refer to her.

[5] The painting of her in the Wallace Collection was much admired and frequently copied in engravings.

Her ambiguous social status frees Reynolds from the need to orate; there is no claim to grandeur here, instead an intimate directness.