John Hoppner R.A. 1758-1810

By descent to Sir Thomas Villiers Lister, K.C.M.G., the sitter's grandson;

Major George Coryton Lister, his son, who married Lady Evelyn Lister, by whom sold, Christie's, 1st July 1921, lot 178, bt. for £1050;

Duveen Brothers Inc., New York;

The Norton Simon Foundation, Los Angeles, by whom sold, Sotheby's, 27th June 1973, lot 9

Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, Loan Collection of Portraits, 1903, no.48;

New York, Union League Club, 1924;

New York, Wildenstein Galleries, The Child Through Four Centuries, 1945, no.22

William McKay and W. Roberts, John Hoppner, R.A., 1909, p.231, illustrated;

'American Art Notes', Connoisseur, Vol.XCI, June 1933, p.416;

Margaret Breuning, 'Painted Childhood', Art Digest, 15th March 1945, p.14

A letter written by Hoppner survives, dating from 1803, in which the artist states that he will paint no more portraits of children. This statement merely serves to emphasise the importance of the child portrait in Hoppner's oeuvre. Hoppner's first exhibited picture at the Royal Academy in 1780 was a portrait of A Primrose Girl (no.112) and over the course of his exhibiting career he painted some exquisite child portraits, including portraits of the princesses Mary and Sophia, daughters of George III, now hanging in Windsor Castle, and group portraits of both his own children and those of the Cavendish and Douglas families (Royal Academy, 1795, no.58).

The sitter was the daughter of John Seale of Mount Boone, Devon, and the sister of Sir John Henry Seale, M.P. for Dartmouth. She married, as his first wife, Thomas Lister, of Armitage Park, Staffordshire, the cousin of Thomas Lister, 1st Baron Ribblesdale. She had one son, Thomas Henry Lister (1800-42) who became a well known novelist, most famed for his society novel Granby, published in 1838. Thomas Lister wrote a number of other novels as well as a tragedy, Epicharis, which was based on the history of Piso's conspiracy, and which was first performed at the Drury Lane theatre on 14th October 1829.

This portrait captures the fashion for fanciful and luxurious portraits at the end of the eighteenth century, and illustrates Hoppner's sensitive ability to capture the freshness of youth.