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.

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).

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