Jane Baldwin

Jane Baldwin born Jane Maltass (26 June 1763 – 7 July 1839) was an Ottoman Empire-born beauty who moved to England. She was an exotic "pretty Greek" model for leading artists in Vienna and England. She joined London society and assisted her husband in obtaining his position in Egypt.

Life Baldwin was born in İzmir in 1763, her mother was Marguerite Icard and her father, William Maltass, was a merchant from Yorkshire.

She married a British diplomat and merchant George Baldwin who was her father's agent. He was employed by the East India Company and spoke fluent Arabic. He became a prisoner after one of his caravans was attacked in 1779, but he escaped and went to Izmir. Their unhappy marriage created a daughter.

While pausing in Vienna on their way to Britain, Jane became a celebrity. Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor commissioned a bust of her by the Italian sculptor Giuseppe Ceracchi and the ambassador Count Wenzel Anton Kaunitz-Rietberg commissioned a full-length portrait. It was Reynolds who volunteered to make the painting of her, which remained in his own collection. She sat for the painting and passed the time by reading a book of poetry. In the final painting Reynolds replaces the book with a coin. She is dressed in an Eastern style that was fashionable and known as Turquerie.

Her husband died in 1826 in Earl's Court, and his art collection of lithographs, cameos and busts was sold at Christie's in May 1828.

Jane Baldwin died in 1839 and was buried in Clapham.