Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A.

The Heathcote Collection, Hursley Park, Winchester;

Anonymous sale (‘The Property of a Gentleman’), London, Christie’s, 20 April 1990, lot 30;

Where acquired by John William Theodore and Sylvia Mary Fanshawe Tapp, Southborough House, Surbiton;

Anonymous sale, Newbury, Dreweatts, 27 June 2017, lot 10;

With Simon Dickinson, Ltd, London;

From whom acquired in 2018.

D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds. A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, 2 vols, New Haven and London 2000, vol. I, p. 496, no. 1983, vol. II, p. 199, reproduced fig. 235. 

This charming portrait of a lady, considered by Mannings to be an unfinished study, is thought to have been painted circa 1756 (see Literature) when Reynolds was still in the earlier stages of his career. Having moved to London in 1753, he had only recently returned from his travels to Italy, which is where he perhaps drew inspiration for the composition of the present work. Whilst visiting the Palazzo Ratta in Bologna in 1752, he noted down ‘a Sybil by Domenicino [sic], the very same figure as the St Cecilia in the Borghese at Rome, only instead of music this has cartels’.¹ An admirer of Domenichino, Reynolds certainly seems to have borrowed such elements as the sitter’s turban and right earring from the artist’s repertoire.

Set against a neutral, grey background, the sitter, whose identity has not yet been confirmed, has been linked to Mary Heathcote, later Mary Parker, Countess of Macclesfield (d. 1812). However, this connection was only made recently and in both the Christie’s and Dreweatts catalogue entries (see Provenance), the sitter is anonymously described. The work is also listed under ‘unidentified sitters’ in Mannings’ catalogue raisonné. It is through the early provenance that the connection to Lady Macclesfield has been suggested. The painting can be traced to Sir William Heathcote, 1^st Bt. (1693–1751) of Hursley Park, Winchester. Mary was his eldest daughter and in 1749, married her first cousin, George Parker, 3^rd Earl of Macclesfield. It was possibly through their descendants that the painting passed until the estate was sold by the widow of the 5^th Baronet, Sir William Heathcote, after his death in 1881.

¹ G. Perini, ‘Sir Joshua Reynolds a Bologna (1752)’ in Storia dell’ Arte, vol. 73, 1991, p. 406.