Thomas Gainsborough R.A.

Sir Joseph Benjamin Robinson (1840-1929), 1st Baronet, Cape Town, South Africa;

His sale, London, Christie's, 6 July 1923, lot 8 (as General Bligh);

Where acquired by Knoedler;

With Knoedler, New York, and Scott & Fowles, New York, 1923–1924 (as General Thomas Bligh);

From whom acquired by William R. Timken (1866-1949), New York, 1924;

Thence by inheritance to his wife Lillian S. Timken (1881-1959), New York;

By whom bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1959.

New York, Knoedler, Gainsborough, 1727–1788, 3 – 15 December 1923, no. 16 (as General Thomas Bligh).

E. Waterhouse, "Preliminary Check List of Portraits by Thomas Gainsborough," in Walpole Society 33 (1953), p. 9 (as General Thomas Bligh);

E. Waterhouse, Gainsborough, London 1958, p. 55 (as General Thomas Bligh?);

J. Canaday, "Flip of Coin Helps Divide Fortune in Art," in New York Times (May 15 1960), p. 77;

K. Baetjer, European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue, New York 1995, p. 188, reproduced p. 187 (as Portrait of Man called General Thomas Bligh);

K. Baetjer, British Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1575–1875, New York 2009, pp. 95-96, cat. no. 41, reproduced (as Portrait of a Man);

H. Belsey, "A Gainsborough Sitter Identified: John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire," in Metropolitan Museum Journal 45 (2010), pp. 211-215, reproduced fig. 1;

H. Belsey, Thomas Gainsborough. The Portraits, Fancy Pictures and Copies after Old Masters, vol. I, New Haven and London 2019, p. 124, cat. no. 122, reproduced (as painted circa 1784).