Lot 67
  • 67

Sir Joshua Reynolds P.R.A. Plympton, Devon 1723-1792 London

Estimate
400,000 - 600,000 USD
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Description

  • Sir Joshua Reynolds P.R.A.
  • Portrait of Miss Frances Harris
  • full-length, wearing a white dress with sash, standing in a landscape with a dog seated at her right, her right hand resting on the dog's head
    oil on canvas

Provenance

Painted for John, 4th Earl of Darnley, Cobham Hall, Kent;
With E.M. Hodgkins, Paris, 1927;
With Duveen, New York;
Clement O. Miniger, Perrysburg, Ohio;
Mrs. George M. Jones, Jr., Perrysburg, Ohio;
By whom given to the Toledo Museum of Art in 1975 (Acc. no. 75.85).

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, 1790, no. 243;
London, British Institution, no. 9 (3rd catalogue);
Manchester, Art Treasures of the United Kingdom, 1857, no. 63;
London, Royal Academy, Loan Exhibition of Old Masters and Deceased Masters of the British School, 1876, no 249;
London, Grosvenor Gallery, Works of Sir John Reynolds, P.R.A., 1883, no. 75;
London, Royal Academy, Loan Exhibition of Old Masters and Deceased Masters of the British School, 1906, no. 55;
London, 45 Park Lane, Sir Joshua Reynolds Loan Exhibition, 1937, no. 99.

Literature

A. Graves and W.V. Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A., London 1899-1901, Vol. II, pp. 442-43;
W. Armstrong, Sir Joshua Reynolds, London 1900, p. 211, reproduction of the Grozer mezzotint opp. p. 160;
E.K. Waterhouse, Reynolds, London 1941, p. 82;
The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo 1976, p. 138, reproduced Plate 312;
J.D. Morse, Old Master Paintings in North America, New York 1979, p. 238;
D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds, A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings, New Haven 2000, Text Vol., pp. 243-4, Plates Vol., reproduced figure 1560.

ENGRAVED:
J. Grozer, 1791;
S.W. Reynolds, 1836. 

Catalogue Note

The sitter, born in 1784, was the second daughter of the prominent diplomat Sir James Harris, afterwards 1st Earl of Malmesbury, and his wife Harriet Amyand.  In 1815, she married Lt.-Gen. Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole, Governor of Mauritius and the Cape, and the 2nd son of William Willoughby, 1st Earl of Enniskillen.  She died in 1847.

Numerous appointments for Miss Harris are noted in Reynolds' Pocket Books from May-July, 1789.1  A payment of 100 guineas ("Lord Darnley, for Miss Harris") is recorded in Reynolds' Ledger between April 1790 and June 1791.  The portrait was very favorably reviewed when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1790.  The London Chronicle reported that "No. 243, portrait of a young lady, is amongst the best of Sir Joshua's works, and inferior to none that has been produced in this line of painting," while the St. James Chronicle wrote "This is one of the most beautiful and elegant productions which captivate all beholders.  The figure is easy, natural, and interesting.  The dog is finely painted, and the background, viewed at a certain distance, is nature itself .  The freedom of touch is truly astonishing."2

1  For a complete listing of all the sittings see D. Mannings, op.cit., p. 243.
2  See A. Graves and W.V. Cronin, op.cit., p. 442.