print;
newspaper/periodical
- Museum number
- 1877,1013.1763
- Title
- Object: La veuve et l'enfant
- Description
-
Portrait of Mrs Seaforth after Reynolds (Mannings 1595); three-quarter length sitting to right beneath a tree wearing dark dress and a hat with ostrich feathers, holding her child on her lap; a park behind; published in "La Gazette des Beaux-Arts". c.1873
Etching
- Production date
- 1873 (c)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 268 millimetres (plate-mark)
-
Width: 230 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This plate was later re-used in "Tableaux de premier ordre anciens et modernes composant la galerie de M. John W. Wilson", for comment on the series see also 1877,1013.1767.
The identity of the sitter is uncertain. Chaloner Smith (Grozer, cat. No.17) states she is Mary Mackenzie, married to Francis Humbertson Mackenzie, who 'succeeded to the estates of Seaforth and Humbertson...in April, 1793' and was also Governor of Barbados; upon his death 'his sons having pre-deceased him, the title became extinct.' Lady Seaforth died in 1829. The identity of the child is conjectured to be their daughter, Mary Frederica Elizabeth, married first to Sir Samuel Hood, and later James Alexander Stuart, Esqr., who took the name of Mackenzie.
According to David Mannings, the "Mrs. Seaforth" noted in Reynolds's Pocket-Book is a Mrs. Lyne, who 'took the name of Seaforth...[and] was mistress to Richard Barwell', with whom she had four children. She was also the model for Reynolds's painting 'Tuccia', which, as a result, generated much public interest at the time about her age and relationship with the much-older Barwell. See also Curatorial Comment for 1880,0807.110
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Gazette des Beaux-Arts
- Acquisition date
- 1877
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1877,1013.1763