drawing
- Museum number
- 1920,1116.30
- Description
-
Sketch for a portrait of a lady, after Kneller; a figure standing behind a painting of a lady
Pen and brown ink
- Production date
- 1723-1792
- Dimensions
-
Height: 141 millimetres
-
Width: 151 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Not in Binyon.
Clifford et al., 1978
This study is difficult to interpret: it might represent either an artist in his studio holding a paint brush and standing behind a full-length portrait of a lady, or two paintings stacked one upon the other with the further one's edges defined at the bottom but not at the sides or top. The pose of the nearer portrait is closely related to 'Mary, Countess of Essex' by Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1733), one of the set of 'Hampton Court Beauties' (Oliver Millar, 'The Tudor, Stuart and early Georgian pictures in the collection of Her Majesty the Queen', London, 1963, cat. 354, pl. 152); mezzotints of this painting were published by John Faber, junior, and John Simon. The portrait of the 'Countess of Essex' does not however have a landscape background as in this drawing. The further portrait (if we assume that is what it is) might represent 'Frances, Lady Middleton' posed as a shepherdess with a crook, another of Kneller's 'Hampton Court Beauties' (Millar, 'op. cit.', cat. 357, pl. 158).
Reynolds does not seem to have used this particular drawing, but in his portrait of 'Thomas and Martha Neate with their tutor Mr Needham', signed and dated 1748 (Waterhouse pl. 10) the pose of Martha Neate is based on another of Kneller's 'Beauties', 'Carey, Countess of Peterborough' (Millar, 'op. cit.', cat. 355, pl. 157), a fact which might imply that he made other studies of the Hampton Court series.
The drawing style, with schematic heads marked with a cross to indicate the disposition of the features, though little employed by Kneller, was a distinctive device especially favoured by Sir James Thornhill (1675/6-1734) who may have derived it ultimately from the drawings of Paolo Veronese (c.1528-88). Probably drawn c. 1744-6.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1978-79, 19 Oct - 14 Jan., BM P&D, 'Gainsborough and Reynolds in the BM', No. 79
- Acquisition date
- 1920
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1920,1116.30
