The picture is of Lady Mary in Turkish dress, which she wore in Constantinople. She describes it one of her many letters to her sister, the Countess of Mar, who was exiled in Paris - having married a Jacobite.
If you subscribe to the Financial Times on-line you can see an repro of the whole portrait and read my letter, with attached comments, politely correcting their article that puts Jenner at the forefront of smallpox immunization in Britain. I feel very strongly about getting the chronology right. Jenner did fantastic work but he built on hers. The letter was published under the headline Envoy's Wife Reprised Treatment Seen in Harem and can be read at:
https://www.ft.com/content/00f343e2-dda1-471f-b9e6-dc4974d3318cu
In case you are not a subscriber, here's what I sent:
John Barchilon's letter (27th May) credits Edward Jenner as the original pioneer of vaccination. Yes, Jenner observed the milder effects of smallpox on milkmaids and developed a vaccine from cowpox in the 1790s. However, by 1720, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1761) had developed a successful smallpox treatment, using variolation -- a precursor of a vaccine administered through subcutaneous abrasion. Lady Mary had encountered smallpox variolation in the harems of Constantinople (where her husband was ambassador). She tried it first on her son, Edward, her daughter, Mary, and then -- with the help of Caroline, Princess of Wales -- on convicts and orphans. Volunteers, it seems, are ever in short supply.
Overlooking Lady Mary Wortley Montagu is a common error, which is why - until lockdown - I was, an actress, my solo show, "Lady in a Veil," about her extraordinary life which included introducing Turkish inoculation, or variolation, into Europe. It's time to look again at this remarkable East Midlands woman.