Thomas Gainsborough, R.A.

By descent to Bernard Hutton Croft, Steventon Manor, Hampshire, the sitter's great-grandson;
Anonymous sale ("The Property of a Gentleman"), London, Sotheby's, 30 June 2005, lot 81.

London, Schomberg House, 1784 (as "Mrs Crofts");
Winchester, 1935;
London, Museum of London, Let's Face It, 10 June - 28 September 1986;
Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, on loan, 9 March - 5 July 1990;
Sudbury, Suffolk, Gainsborough's House, on loan, 1990-1998.

W.T. Whiteley, Thomas Gainsborough, London, 1915, p. 228;
E.K. Waterhouse, "Preliminary Checklist of Portraits by Thomas Gainsborough," in Walpole Society, Oxford 1953, vol. XXXIII, p. 25;
E.K. Waterhouse, Gainsborough, London, 1958, p. 61.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work on canvas has an old lining. The surface is still stable. The paint layer is dirty with a yellowed varnish. No retouches are visible under ultraviolet light because of this heavy varnish. If the work were cleaned, the head, face, neck and hair should respond very well. There may well be some thinness in the background. The white paint of the dress has developed cracking over time, some of which may have been retouched. The jeweled clasp in the lower center at the bottom of the white scarf is slightly thin. There may be some strengthening in the hair. The face seems to be in very good state, and cleaning the work would certainly be worthwhile.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This portrait of Mrs. Croft is a fine example of Gainsborough’s late style. Painted in circa 1783, a few years after the sitter’s marriage, she is depicted fashionably attired and with a particularly flamboyant hairstyle.

In 1774, Gainsborough leased the west wing of Schomberg House at 80 Pall Mall. He built a painting room over the garden with a salon above that served as his showroom.  Following disagreements with the Royal Academy over the hanging of his pictures, he finally broke from them in 1784 and held an inaugural exhibition at Schomberg House in July of that year.  There he could have full control over how his pictures were hung and lit.  His first exhibition included ten full-length portraits, twelve half or three-quarter lengths, and a selection of landscapes and subject pictures.  The present portrait seems to be the portrait of “Mrs Crofts” exhibited that year.

The sitter was the daughter and co-heiress of George Wanley Bowes of Thornton Hall, County Durham and Eyford, Gloucestershire, and his wife, Anne, daughter of John Hutton of Marske. On 28 August 1779, she married Robert Nicholas Croft, a member of an old established Yorkshire family which lived at Stillington Hall.  Robert Croft settled at Aldborough Hall and became Canon Residentiary of St. Peter’s Cathedral, York and Prebendary of Botevant.  The Crofts had three sons who all followed their father into the church.  The eldest, James, became Archdeacon of Canterbury and married Charlotte, daughter of the Rev. Charles Manners Sutton, Archbishop of Canterbury.

This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the portraits of Thomas Gainsborough by Hugh Belsey.