George Romney

Probably Thomas Humphrey Ward (1845–1926), London;

From whom acquired by Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, no. 3540, by 1907;

From whom acquired by Nathaniel Thayer (1851–1911), Boston;

By whose Executors sold, New York, American Art Association, 25 April 1935, lot 69;

From whom acquired by Felix Gouled Gallery, New York;

Plaza Art Galleries, New York;

Nate B. Spingold (1886–1958), New York;

By whom sold, Parke-Bernet Galleries, 2 March 1950, lot 46;

Where acquired by Kleemann Gallery, New York;

Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, 5 April 1990, lot 224;

Where acquired by the father of the present owner.

Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts.

H. Ward and W. Roberts, Romney, A Biographical and Critical Essay with a Catalogue Raisonné of his Works, London 1904, vol. II, p. 2;

A. Kidson, George Romney: A complete catalogue of his paintings, New Haven and London 2015, vol. I, p. 113, vol. III, p. 713, no. 1552, reproduced p. 713.

Although there is no evidence to suggest Edward Addison sat for Romney, it is recorded that the artist visited Addison on 11 January 1790 in connection with a portrait he was completing of Sir Archibald Campbell (1739–1791), who was the uncle of Addison's wife, Jane Campbell (1771–1851). Addison took receipt of this painting in 1791, upon the death of his wife's uncle.

Interestingly, Jane Campbell, who had married Addison in 1788, was famously the first woman to successfully obtain a parliamentary divorce in 1801 from her husband on the grounds of his affair with her sister.

Stylistically, the painting appears to date from earlier in Romney's career and is in keeping with his portraits of the mid-1780s.