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An elegantly dressed young woman, a little boy, girl, and a dog are gathered on a veranda in front of a sun-dappled landscape in this vertical portrait painting. All three people have pale skin with rosy cheeks. To our left, the woman sits facing us in front of a low, pewter-gray balustrade. She loosely embraces both children who lean onto her lap, to our right, as the shaggy, dark gray dog looks on. The woman has a slender, oval face, a long nose, rose-red lips, and hazel eyes that gaze just beyond our right shoulder. She wears a diaphanous, parchment-white gown belted at the waist and cinched at the elbow. Over the gown, a voluminous, dusty rose-pink mantle drapes over one shoulder and wraps around her hips and legs. Her dark gray hair is piled high on her head, and loosely painted strokes of garnet red suggest a scarf wrapped around the top. One long tendril loops over one shoulder. The boy closest to the woman rests his elbow along her lap so his body turns slightly away from her. His round face is framed by chestnut-brown curls and bangs, and he looks off to our right with blue eyes. He wears a cranberry-red jacket and breeches, with a gold and yellow striped vest. The wide collar of his white shirt is spread open, and one frilled cuff extends from the sleeve we can see. The woman holds the hand resting on her lap, and both she and the boy wrap their other arms around the little girl. The boy’s small fingers are tucked in at the back of the girl’s neck, just under the woman’s hand. The girl’s body turns as she leans into the boy, reaching one hand to grip his vest. Honey-blond curls frame her round face. She ducks her head as she looks to our right, a smile on her lips. She wears a cream-white gown belted with a celestial-blue sash. Facing away from us, the small dog sits and looks up at the trio. It has shaggy, charcoal-gray, tawny-brown, and white fur. Beyond the balustrade, tall trees covered in pine-green, gold, and brown leaves spread out on either side and recede toward hazy, lilac-purple mountains in the far distance.

Sir Joshua Reynolds

Lady Elizabeth Delmé and Her Children, 1777-1779

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 59

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 238.4 x 147.2 cm (93 7/8 x 57 15/16 in.)

framed: 266.4 x 175.3 cm (104 7/8 x 69 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1937.1.95

Artists / Makers

Sir Joshua Reynolds (artist) British, 1723 - 1792

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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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.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/british-paintings-16th-19th-centuries.pdf

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: Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 144-145, color repro.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. 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.