Posing on sofas

Madame Jean-Charles Clarmont, née Rosalie Favrin by Louis Hersent, 1828.

I think these two paintings, painted ninety-six years apart, by the most fashionable portrait painters of their day, make a nice contrast.  Hersent's very sensible looking Madame Clarmont could not be more soundly balanced and weighted in her setting, while de László - working in a larger format than perhaps he was comfortable with - gives us the very distingué, Garter-ribanded Marquess, with only one court pump shod foot to brace himself, as he nonchalantly endeavors to keep himself and the sofa from sliding off the left side of the picture plane and right out the window.

The 7th Marquess of Londonderry sitting in front of Lawrence's portrait of his ancestor, Lord Castlereagh, by Philip de László, 1924.

Louis Hersent, see here.

Philip Alexius de László, (April 30 1869, Budapest – November 22, 1937, London), born Laub Fülöp Elek, the most successful and prolific portrait painter of his day, particularly known for his portraits of royalty and British and European aristocracy.