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Lady Elizabeth Delmé and Her Children
West Building, Main Floor—Gallery 59
•Date: 1777-1779
•Medium: Oil on Canvas
•Dimensions:
oOverall: 238.4 × 147.2 cm (93⅞ × 57 15/16 in.)
oFramed: 266.4 × 175.3 cm (104⅞ × 69 in.)
•Credit Line: Andrew W. Mellon Collection
•Accession Number: 1937.1.95
•Artists/Makers:
oArtist: Sir Joshua Reynolds, British, 1723-1792
Overview
Reynolds sought to elevate British painting, including portraiture, to the lofty realms of classical expression. After traveling to Rome, Florence, Bologna, and Venice, Reynolds became the first president of the Royal Academy, which had been founded in 1768. Through his teaching at the Academy and the publication of his annual lectures, the Discourses, he urged the adoption of grand classical values and the study of Greek and Roman sculpture and Renaissance painting.
In Lady Delmé, Reynolds created an image of idealized, majestic feminine grace that has many precedents in Renaissance art. The pyramidal composition of the sitters, Lady Delmé’s encircling arms and quiet manner, and the regal folds of the deep-rose drapery across her knees are reminiscent of Madonna and Child compositions by Raphael.
The rich, warm colors of the informal landscape and the beautifully controlled movement of light into the deep reaches of the background owe much to Titian. Finally, Reynolds’ sensitive use of everyday, intimate details prevents the portrait from becoming remote and unapproachable. The tenderness with which Lady Delmé holds her two children, the nuances of personality in the three faces, the realistic costumes of the young sitters, and the attentive posture of the Skye terrier give the painting a worldly, familiar context.
Provenance
Painted for the sitter’s husband, Peter Delmé [1748-1789], Titchfield Abbey, Hampshire; by descent to Seymour Robert Delmé, Cams Hall, Hampshire. Charles J. Wertheimer [1842-1911], London.[1] (Christie, Manson & Wood, London); purchased c. 1900-1901[2] by J. Pierpont Morgan, Sr. [1837-1913], New York; bequeathed to his daughter, Mrs. Robert L. Satterlee [d. 1946], who owned it until c. 1930. (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); sold 15 December 1936 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[3] gift 1937 to NGA.
[1]Wertheimer’s name is in the list of former collections given for the painting on the Duveen Brothers invoice (see note 3).
[2]Connoisseur 3 (1901), 206, notes this portrait as recently sold to Pierpont Morgan
[3]The original Duveen Brothers invoice is in Gallery Archives, copy in NGA curatorial files.
Associated Names
•Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.
•Delmé, Peter
•Delmé, Seymour Robert
•Duveen Brothers, Inc.
•Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
•Morgan, Sr., J. Pierpont
•Satterlee, Herbert L., Mrs.
•Wertheimer, Charles J.
Exhibition History
•1895—Works by the Old Masters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School, Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1895, no. 130.
•1899—Loan Collection of Pictures and Drawings by J.M.W. Turner, R.A. and of a Selection of Pictures by Some of His Contemporaries, Corporation of London Art Gallery, 1899, no. 170.
•1908—Aedlre Engelsky Künst, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, 1908, no. 29, repro.
•1908—Aelterer Englischer Kunst, Königliche Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1908, no. 68 (souvenir volume, 73, repro.).
•1928—Fifteen Masters of the Eighteenth Century, Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York, 1928, no. 13.
•1937—Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Philip Sassoon’s, 45 Park Lane, London, 1937, no. 26 (souvenir, repro. 56).
Technical Summary
The light- to medium-weight canvas is twill woven; it has been double lined. The ground is not discernible through the discolored varnish and thick paint layers, but is probably white. The painting is richly executed in a complex of different layers and techniques. The lowest paint layer is gray; the middle layers are thickly applied, white in the lights, the drapery, and background, and dark in the tree trunks, foliage, and shadows; the final layers defining detail contain nonoil additives and include rich brown, red, and blue glazes in the foliage, sky, and landscape, and in parts of the figures. The painting seems to have been retouched and revarnished by Reynolds in 1789.[1] There are many shallow, overpainted losses throughout the painting. Broad craquelure marks most of the dark, rich browns, indicating the presence of bitumen. The varnish, which appears to be a natural resin, is difficult to distinguish from the final glazes and has discolored yellow to a significant degree.
[1]A newspaper report dated 19 September 1789 stated that this and some other portraits “which for many years have been lodged in his infirmary” now “by the help of fresh varnish and a few vivifying touches from his pencil, again claim our notice” (Graves and Cronin 1899-1901, 4: 1296).
Bibliography
•1865—Leslie, Charles Robert and Tom Taylor. Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 2 vols. London, 1865: 2:202, 302.
•1899—Graves, Algernon and William Vine Cronin. A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 4 vols. London, 1899-1901: 1:241; 4:.
•1900—Armstrong, Sir Walter. Sir Joshua Reynolds. London, 1900: 202.
•1907—Roberts, William. Pictures in the Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan at Prince’s Gate & Dover House, London: English School. London, 1907: unpaginated.
•1941—Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 264, repro., as Lady Betty Delmé and Children.
•1941—Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 167, no. 95.
•1941—Waterhouse, Sir Ellis. Reynolds. London, 1941: 68, pl. 191.
•1942—Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 241, repro. 17.
•1949—Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 106, repro.
•1952—Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 134, color repro.
•1960—Cooke, Hereward Lester. British Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Eight in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 12, color repro.
•1963—Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 319, repro.
•1965—Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 113.
•1966—Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:350, color repro.
•1968—European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 101, repro.
•1975—European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 302, repro.
•1975—Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: no. 504, color repro.
•1984—Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 361, no. 502, color repro.
•1985—European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 348, repro.
•1992—Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 213-215, repro. 214.
•1992—National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1992: 149, repro.
•1999—Zuffi, Stefano and Francesca Castria, La peinture baroque. Translated from Italian by Silvia Bonucci and Claude Sophie Mazéas. Paris, 1999: 374, color repro.
•2004—Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 278-279, no. 225, color repro.
From British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries:
1937.1.95 (95)
Lady Elizabeth Delmé and Her Children
•1777-1779
•Oil on Canvas, 239.2 × 147.8 (94⅛ × 58⅛)
•Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Technical Notes
The light- to medium-weight canvas is twill woven; it has been double lined. The ground is not discernible through the discolored varnish and thick paint layers, but is probably white. The painting is richly executed in a complex of different layers and techniques. The lowest paint layer is gray; the middle layers are thickly applied, white in the lights, the drapery, and background, and dark in the tree trunks, foliage, and shadows; the final layers defining detail contain nonoil additives and include rich brown, red, and blue glazes in the foliage, sky, and landscape, and in parts of the figures. The painting seems to have been retouched and revarnished by Reynolds in 1789.’ There are many shallow, overpainted losses throughout the painting. Broad craquelure marks most of the dark, rich browns, indicating the presence of bitumen. The varnish, which appears to be a natural resin, is difficult to distinguish from the final glazes and has discolored yellow to a significant degree.
Provenance
Painted for the sitter’s husband, Peter Delmé [1748-1789], Titchfield Abbey, Hampshire; by descent to Seymour Robert Delmé, Cams Hall, Hampshire (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 7 July 1894, no. 63), bought by (Charles J. Wertheimer), London, from whom it was purchasedc. 1900-19012 by J. Pierpont Morgan, Sr. [1837-1913], New York; bequeathed to his daughter, Mrs. Herbert L. Satterlee [d. 1946], who owned it until c. 1930. (Duveen Brothers), New York, who sold it 15 December 1936 to The A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh.
Exhibitions
Works by the Old M asters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School, Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1895, no. 130. Loan Collection of Pictures and Drawings by J. M. W. Turner, R A. and of a Selection of Pictures by Some of His Contemporaries, Corporation of London Art Gallery, 1899, no. 170. Aeldre Engelsk Künst, Ny Csiúsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, 1908, no. 29, repro. Aelterer Englischer Kunst, Kónigliche Akademie der Klinste, Berlin, 1908, no. 68 (souvenir volume, 73, repro.). Fifteen M asters of the Eighteenth Century, Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York, 1928, no. 13. Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Philip Sassoon’s, 45 Park Lane, London, 1937, no. 26 (illustrated souvenir, repro. 56).
Lady Elizabeth Howard (1746-1813), third daughter of Henry, 4th Earl of Carlisle, married Peter Delmé in 1769 and, after his death in 1789, became the wife in 1794 of Captain Charles Gamier, R.N., who was drowned in 1796. Delmé, of wealthy Huguenot descent, was, through the influence of his wife’s family, M.P. for Morpeth from 1774 to 1789. He inherited Titchfield Abbey (demolished 1781) and in 1771 built Cams Hall, Fareham, Hampshire, a few miles away. Their two eldest children, Isabella Elizabeth (d. I794)3 and John (1772-1809), are depicted on the right and in the center of the portrait respectively. The couple had three other children, all sons, born in 1774,1775, and at a date unknown.
Lady Elizabeth sat to Reynolds in April 1777.4 A sitting in June 1780, canceled on account of the Gordon riots,5 seems unlikely to have been connected with any change to this portrait, by then finished and engraved. In June 1777 there were two sittings for “Master Delmé” and the “Delmé Children. “6 Payment was made in June 1780, when Reynolds recorded in his account book the receipt of three hundred pounds.7
The picture is one of Reynolds’ noblest and most successful family portraits. The design is pyramidal and, although Lady Elizabeth is looking out at the spectator rather than at her children, it is strongly reminiscent of such Raphael Madonnas with the Christ Child and Saint John as the Madonna in the Meadow. The chiaroscuro is carefully contrived, and the swathes of drapery over Lady Elizabeth’s knees, influenced in their elaboration by Bolognese seventeenth-century painting, give the composition a rhythmic sense of movement. The beech trees that support the figure group are more massive than was customary with Reynolds; these trees, suggestive of the canopy behind a Madonna in an Italian altarpiece, together with the Titianesque vista on the right, add to the impression of a work deliberately painted in emulation of the Old Masters. Lady Elizabeth’s hair, high piled with a scarf intertwined and a ringlet falling over the right shoulder, is dressed in the height of fashion, and her two children are wearing contemporary dress. The intimate naturalism with which Reynolds has painted the children and their terrier serves as a perfect foil to his idealized representation of Lady Elizabeth, personifying the adult world, and to the high seriousness of the work as a whole.
A mezzotint by Valentine Green was published by him on 1 July 1779 and another, by Samuel William Reynolds, is undated.
Notes
1.A newspaper report dated 19 September 1789 stated that this and some other portraits “which for many years have been lodged in his infirmary” now “by the help of fresh varnish and a few vivifying touches from his pencil, again claim our notice” (Graves and Cronin 1899-1901, 4:1296).
2.Conn 3 (1901), 206, notes this portrait as recently sold to Pierpont Morgan.
3.Isabella’s birth date is not known, but, on the assumption that the child on the right of the picture is a girl, she must have been the eldest child, born in 1770 or 1771.
4.Leslie and Taylor 1865 (see biography), 2:202.
5.The entry is struck through in Reynolds’ sitter book.
6.Graves and Cronin 1899-1901 (see biography), 4:1544-1545-7. Malcolm Cormack, “The Ledgers of Sir Joshua Reynolds,” The Walpole Society 42(1970’), 150.
References
•1865—Leslie and Taylor 1865, 2:202,302.
•1899—Graves and Cronin 1899, 1:241; 4:1296,1544-1545.
•1900—Armstrong, Sir Walter. Sir Joshua Reynolds. London, 1900:202.
•1907—Roberts, William. Pictures in the Collection of J. Pierpont M organ at Prince’s Gate & Dover House, London: English School. London, 1907: unpaginated.
•1941—Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 264, repro.
•1941—Waterhouse 1941: 68, pi. 191.
•1949—Mellon 1949: no. 95, repro.106.
•1976—Walker 1976: no. 504, color repro.
•1990—Shawe-Taylor, Desmond. The Georgians: Eighteenth-Century Portraiture and Society. London,1990: 192-193, color fig. 127.
in frame: @deadlyladyz13
Location @elysiumstu
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Phillip Moud:
Puported to be the marriage portrait sent to the Danish Court to seduce, Anne, his future wife This portrait has been referred to by Sir Roy Strong, as being one of the most important portraits of James VI and it is unarguably the most significant image of
him remaining in private hands. It has been dated to c. 1585, when James was still only King of Scotland and would have been around nineteen years of age.
It is of particular significance in the study of the iconography of James, in that it is the only known image of him in his late teens. His iconography is relatively incomplete for a royal figure, due to James'' apparent personal dislike of sitting for his picture and to the decline in the standards of portrait production in his reign. Weldon states that James could never be brought to sit for the taking of that [picture], which is the reason of so few good pieces of him.
However, in this portrait unlike almost all others of him, we gain a sense of the individual, as well as the more commonly encountered divine Stuart persona - as perceived in the renderings of De Critz and Van Sommer. This apparent individuality is attributable perhaps as much to the physical change in the sitter from youth to manhood, as to the probable purpose for which the image was intended. We also become aware for the first time of the physical characteristics and the alleged homosexuality for which he was renowned. Weldon in his Court and Character of King James gives a contemporary description of his appearance:
He was of middle stature, more corpulent through his cloathes than in his body...of a naturally timorous disposition...his eye large, ever rowling after any stranger came in his presence...
The German inscription and its provenance suggest that the picture was commissioned for an intended Continental destination. In 1585, the approximate year that this portrait was painted, an embassy was sent to Denmark from Scotland to begin marriage negotiations with the Danish court. The official language of the Danish court was German. This ultimately led to the marriage between James and Anne of Denmark in 1595. An exchange of images was the most common and accepted form of preliminary contact in potential alliances of this kind. Sir James Melville mentions in his Memoirs, that in 1588 James's embossier returned from both Denmark and Navarre with paintings of his prospective brides.
The unique nature of this image adds weight to the speculation that this was a marriage portrait designed to entice a royal bride from the Danish court. While there is no surviving record of the acceptance of a pre-Nuptial portrait of James in Denmark, an early inventory of pictures belonging to King Christian in 1600 at the castle of Kronborg, tantalizingly lists a portrait of the English King.() This must refer to a portrait of his brother-in-law, James I which was subsequently moved along with the other royal portraits to the castle of Frederiksborg. It would appear most likely that this portrait of James is the one that was recorded at Kronborg, although there is no record of how it entered the collection of Count van Rechteren Limpurg-Almelo, where it was recorded in 1936. However, a member of the Rechteren family was a distinguished diplomat in the late seventeenth century and it is possible that it was acquired directly from Frederiksborg at around this date.
This portrait is almost certainly the product of Adrian Vanson, an artist of Flemish origins, who had by May 1584 succeeded Arnold Bronckorst as official painter to the Scottish Court. Vanson was active at Court until at least 1601 and unlike Bronckorst, received some form of civic patronage. In December 1585 he was freely admitted as a burgess of Edinburgh for guid and thankfull sendee to be done to the guid towne under the express condition that he tak and Instruct prenteisses. Vanson was apparently the only painter at Court entrusted with portraiture at this period and a further three portraits of James have been attributed to him.
Letter from Sir Roy Strong, 22nd July 1987.
Roy Strong, Tudor and Jacobean Portraits, 1969, p. 178.
Sir A. Weldon, The Court and Character of King James, 1650, reprinted by G.Smeeton, London, 1817, p.55.
Op.cit. note 3, pp. 55-9.
Sir James Melville, Memoirs, Bannatyne Club 1827.
Povl Eller, Painters of Royal Portraits in Denmark 1630-82, Copenhagen 1971.
Scottish Records Office, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, E22/6,
fo. 184. Vanson in place of Arnold Brukhorst was allowed a half-yearly fee
of £50.
Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Edinburgh 1573-1589, Edinburgh 1882, p.446.
See: Duncan Thomson, The Life and Art of George Jamesone, Oxford 1974, p.46-8.
Part of a Picnic with a Watermelon on a summer afternoon. Was really fun... as when a children game.
Model www.instagram.com/_a.n.n.e.t._/
My account www.instagram.com/ph_kolomiichenko/
Lens: Helios 44m f 2.0
A few ideas on partially obscuring the identity of the interviewers (who are referred to in the project as simply #1, #2 etc).
Lady Elizabeth Delmé and Her Children
West Building, Main Floor—Gallery 59
•Date: 1777-1779
•Medium: Oil on Canvas
•Dimensions:
oOverall: 238.4 × 147.2 cm (93⅞ × 57 15/16 in.)
oFramed: 266.4 × 175.3 cm (104⅞ × 69 in.)
•Credit Line: Andrew W. Mellon Collection
•Accession Number: 1937.1.95
•Artists/Makers:
oArtist: Sir Joshua Reynolds, British, 1723-1792
Overview
Reynolds sought to elevate British painting, including portraiture, to the lofty realms of classical expression. After traveling to Rome, Florence, Bologna, and Venice, Reynolds became the first president of the Royal Academy, which had been founded in 1768. Through his teaching at the Academy and the publication of his annual lectures, the Discourses, he urged the adoption of grand classical values and the study of Greek and Roman sculpture and Renaissance painting.
In Lady Delmé, Reynolds created an image of idealized, majestic feminine grace that has many precedents in Renaissance art. The pyramidal composition of the sitters, Lady Delmé’s encircling arms and quiet manner, and the regal folds of the deep-rose drapery across her knees are reminiscent of Madonna and Child compositions by Raphael.
The rich, warm colors of the informal landscape and the beautifully controlled movement of light into the deep reaches of the background owe much to Titian. Finally, Reynolds’ sensitive use of everyday, intimate details prevents the portrait from becoming remote and unapproachable. The tenderness with which Lady Delmé holds her two children, the nuances of personality in the three faces, the realistic costumes of the young sitters, and the attentive posture of the Skye terrier give the painting a worldly, familiar context.
Provenance
Painted for the sitter’s husband, Peter Delmé [1748-1789], Titchfield Abbey, Hampshire; by descent to Seymour Robert Delmé, Cams Hall, Hampshire. Charles J. Wertheimer [1842-1911], London.[1] (Christie, Manson & Wood, London); purchased c. 1900-1901[2] by J. Pierpont Morgan, Sr. [1837-1913], New York; bequeathed to his daughter, Mrs. Robert L. Satterlee [d. 1946], who owned it until c. 1930. (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); sold 15 December 1936 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[3] gift 1937 to NGA.
[1]Wertheimer’s name is in the list of former collections given for the painting on the Duveen Brothers invoice (see note 3).
[2]Connoisseur 3 (1901), 206, notes this portrait as recently sold to Pierpont Morgan
[3]The original Duveen Brothers invoice is in Gallery Archives, copy in NGA curatorial files.
Associated Names
•Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.
•Delmé, Peter
•Delmé, Seymour Robert
•Duveen Brothers, Inc.
•Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
•Morgan, Sr., J. Pierpont
•Satterlee, Herbert L., Mrs.
•Wertheimer, Charles J.
Exhibition History
•1895—Works by the Old Masters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School, Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1895, no. 130.
•1899—Loan Collection of Pictures and Drawings by J.M.W. Turner, R.A. and of a Selection of Pictures by Some of His Contemporaries, Corporation of London Art Gallery, 1899, no. 170.
•1908—Aedlre Engelsky Künst, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, 1908, no. 29, repro.
•1908—Aelterer Englischer Kunst, Königliche Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1908, no. 68 (souvenir volume, 73, repro.).
•1928—Fifteen Masters of the Eighteenth Century, Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York, 1928, no. 13.
•1937—Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Philip Sassoon’s, 45 Park Lane, London, 1937, no. 26 (souvenir, repro. 56).
Technical Summary
The light- to medium-weight canvas is twill woven; it has been double lined. The ground is not discernible through the discolored varnish and thick paint layers, but is probably white. The painting is richly executed in a complex of different layers and techniques. The lowest paint layer is gray; the middle layers are thickly applied, white in the lights, the drapery, and background, and dark in the tree trunks, foliage, and shadows; the final layers defining detail contain nonoil additives and include rich brown, red, and blue glazes in the foliage, sky, and landscape, and in parts of the figures. The painting seems to have been retouched and revarnished by Reynolds in 1789.[1] There are many shallow, overpainted losses throughout the painting. Broad craquelure marks most of the dark, rich browns, indicating the presence of bitumen. The varnish, which appears to be a natural resin, is difficult to distinguish from the final glazes and has discolored yellow to a significant degree.
[1]A newspaper report dated 19 September 1789 stated that this and some other portraits “which for many years have been lodged in his infirmary” now “by the help of fresh varnish and a few vivifying touches from his pencil, again claim our notice” (Graves and Cronin 1899-1901, 4: 1296).
Bibliography
•1865—Leslie, Charles Robert and Tom Taylor. Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 2 vols. London, 1865: 2:202, 302.
•1899—Graves, Algernon and William Vine Cronin. A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 4 vols. London, 1899-1901: 1:241; 4:.
•1900—Armstrong, Sir Walter. Sir Joshua Reynolds. London, 1900: 202.
•1907—Roberts, William. Pictures in the Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan at Prince’s Gate & Dover House, London: English School. London, 1907: unpaginated.
•1941—Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 264, repro., as Lady Betty Delmé and Children.
•1941—Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 167, no. 95.
•1941—Waterhouse, Sir Ellis. Reynolds. London, 1941: 68, pl. 191.
•1942—Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 241, repro. 17.
•1949—Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 106, repro.
•1952—Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 134, color repro.
•1960—Cooke, Hereward Lester. British Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Eight in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 12, color repro.
•1963—Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 319, repro.
•1965—Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 113.
•1966—Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:350, color repro.
•1968—European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 101, repro.
•1975—European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 302, repro.
•1975—Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: no. 504, color repro.
•1984—Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 361, no. 502, color repro.
•1985—European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 348, repro.
•1992—Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 213-215, repro. 214.
•1992—National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1992: 149, repro.
•1999—Zuffi, Stefano and Francesca Castria, La peinture baroque. Translated from Italian by Silvia Bonucci and Claude Sophie Mazéas. Paris, 1999: 374, color repro.
•2004—Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 278-279, no. 225, color repro.
From British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries:
1937.1.95 (95)
Lady Elizabeth Delmé and Her Children
•1777-1779
•Oil on Canvas, 239.2 × 147.8 (94⅛ × 58⅛)
•Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Technical Notes
The light- to medium-weight canvas is twill woven; it has been double lined. The ground is not discernible through the discolored varnish and thick paint layers, but is probably white. The painting is richly executed in a complex of different layers and techniques. The lowest paint layer is gray; the middle layers are thickly applied, white in the lights, the drapery, and background, and dark in the tree trunks, foliage, and shadows; the final layers defining detail contain nonoil additives and include rich brown, red, and blue glazes in the foliage, sky, and landscape, and in parts of the figures. The painting seems to have been retouched and revarnished by Reynolds in 1789.’ There are many shallow, overpainted losses throughout the painting. Broad craquelure marks most of the dark, rich browns, indicating the presence of bitumen. The varnish, which appears to be a natural resin, is difficult to distinguish from the final glazes and has discolored yellow to a significant degree.
Provenance
Painted for the sitter’s husband, Peter Delmé [1748-1789], Titchfield Abbey, Hampshire; by descent to Seymour Robert Delmé, Cams Hall, Hampshire (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 7 July 1894, no. 63), bought by (Charles J. Wertheimer), London, from whom it was purchasedc. 1900-19012 by J. Pierpont Morgan, Sr. [1837-1913], New York; bequeathed to his daughter, Mrs. Herbert L. Satterlee [d. 1946], who owned it until c. 1930. (Duveen Brothers), New York, who sold it 15 December 1936 to The A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh.
Exhibitions
Works by the Old M asters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School, Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1895, no. 130. Loan Collection of Pictures and Drawings by J. M. W. Turner, R A. and of a Selection of Pictures by Some of His Contemporaries, Corporation of London Art Gallery, 1899, no. 170. Aeldre Engelsk Künst, Ny Csiúsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, 1908, no. 29, repro. Aelterer Englischer Kunst, Kónigliche Akademie der Klinste, Berlin, 1908, no. 68 (souvenir volume, 73, repro.). Fifteen M asters of the Eighteenth Century, Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York, 1928, no. 13. Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Philip Sassoon’s, 45 Park Lane, London, 1937, no. 26 (illustrated souvenir, repro. 56).
Lady Elizabeth Howard (1746-1813), third daughter of Henry, 4th Earl of Carlisle, married Peter Delmé in 1769 and, after his death in 1789, became the wife in 1794 of Captain Charles Gamier, R.N., who was drowned in 1796. Delmé, of wealthy Huguenot descent, was, through the influence of his wife’s family, M.P. for Morpeth from 1774 to 1789. He inherited Titchfield Abbey (demolished 1781) and in 1771 built Cams Hall, Fareham, Hampshire, a few miles away. Their two eldest children, Isabella Elizabeth (d. I794)3 and John (1772-1809), are depicted on the right and in the center of the portrait respectively. The couple had three other children, all sons, born in 1774,1775, and at a date unknown.
Lady Elizabeth sat to Reynolds in April 1777.4 A sitting in June 1780, canceled on account of the Gordon riots,5 seems unlikely to have been connected with any change to this portrait, by then finished and engraved. In June 1777 there were two sittings for “Master Delmé” and the “Delmé Children. “6 Payment was made in June 1780, when Reynolds recorded in his account book the receipt of three hundred pounds.7
The picture is one of Reynolds’ noblest and most successful family portraits. The design is pyramidal and, although Lady Elizabeth is looking out at the spectator rather than at her children, it is strongly reminiscent of such Raphael Madonnas with the Christ Child and Saint John as the Madonna in the Meadow. The chiaroscuro is carefully contrived, and the swathes of drapery over Lady Elizabeth’s knees, influenced in their elaboration by Bolognese seventeenth-century painting, give the composition a rhythmic sense of movement. The beech trees that support the figure group are more massive than was customary with Reynolds; these trees, suggestive of the canopy behind a Madonna in an Italian altarpiece, together with the Titianesque vista on the right, add to the impression of a work deliberately painted in emulation of the Old Masters. Lady Elizabeth’s hair, high piled with a scarf intertwined and a ringlet falling over the right shoulder, is dressed in the height of fashion, and her two children are wearing contemporary dress. The intimate naturalism with which Reynolds has painted the children and their terrier serves as a perfect foil to his idealized representation of Lady Elizabeth, personifying the adult world, and to the high seriousness of the work as a whole.
A mezzotint by Valentine Green was published by him on 1 July 1779 and another, by Samuel William Reynolds, is undated.
Notes
1.A newspaper report dated 19 September 1789 stated that this and some other portraits “which for many years have been lodged in his infirmary” now “by the help of fresh varnish and a few vivifying touches from his pencil, again claim our notice” (Graves and Cronin 1899-1901, 4:1296).
2.Conn 3 (1901), 206, notes this portrait as recently sold to Pierpont Morgan.
3.Isabella’s birth date is not known, but, on the assumption that the child on the right of the picture is a girl, she must have been the eldest child, born in 1770 or 1771.
4.Leslie and Taylor 1865 (see biography), 2:202.
5.The entry is struck through in Reynolds’ sitter book.
6.Graves and Cronin 1899-1901 (see biography), 4:1544-1545-7. Malcolm Cormack, “The Ledgers of Sir Joshua Reynolds,” The Walpole Society 42(1970’), 150.
References
•1865—Leslie and Taylor 1865, 2:202,302.
•1899—Graves and Cronin 1899, 1:241; 4:1296,1544-1545.
•1900—Armstrong, Sir Walter. Sir Joshua Reynolds. London, 1900:202.
•1907—Roberts, William. Pictures in the Collection of J. Pierpont M organ at Prince’s Gate & Dover House, London: English School. London, 1907: unpaginated.
•1941—Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 264, repro.
•1941—Waterhouse 1941: 68, pi. 191.
•1949—Mellon 1949: no. 95, repro.106.
•1976—Walker 1976: no. 504, color repro.
•1990—Shawe-Taylor, Desmond. The Georgians: Eighteenth-Century Portraiture and Society. London,1990: 192-193, color fig. 127.
Not.
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