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A young girl wearing a rust-red dress with a tight bodice and full, voluminous skirt sits in a hazy, garden-like setting in this vertical portrait painting. Her skin is pale with a greenish cast, but her cheeks are slightly flushed. Her body faces us but her head turns as she looks off to our left with dark eyes. She has faint brows, high cheekbones, a pointed chin, and her thin lips are parted. Her blond hair falls down the sides of her face, and she wears a brick-red bow across the top of her head. A second bow, the same color, is tied under her chin. Her dress is off the shoulders and cut low across her chest. The bodice, neckline, and half-length sleeves are lined with lace, and a sprig with forest-green leaves is tucked into the neckline. She holds a bouquet of red, pink, blue, and white flowers in her lap with both hands. The pointed tip of one gold shoe peeks out from under the hem of her skirt. The background around her is painted with blended tones of teal, aquamarine, and steel blue. A tree grows up along the right edge, and the dark canopy curves over her head, in the upper right corner. One rose lies in deep shadow near her feet.

Sir Joshua Reynolds

Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, 1758

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 117 x 84 cm (46 1/16 x 33 1/16 in.)

Credit Line

Widener Collection

Accession Number

1942.9.75

Artists / Makers

Sir Joshua Reynolds (artist) British, 1723 - 1792

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

Painted for the sitter's mother, Elizabeth, Duchess of Hamilton and Brandon [1734-1790]; by descent through her second husband, John, 5th Duke of Argyll [1723-1806], to George, 8th Duke of Argyll [1723-1806]; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 17 March 1855, no. 91); bought by the King for Welbore Ellis, 2nd Earl of Normanton [1778-1868], Somerley, Hampshire; by descent to Sidney, 4th Earl of Normanton [1865-1933];[1] sold 22 March 1909 to (Thos. Agnew & Sons, London); sold the same day to (Arthur J. Sulley & Co., London);[2] purchased 1909 by Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener; gift 1942 to NGA.

[1] The additional Dukes of Argyll and 3rd Earl of Normanton listed in the former owner table in NGA's collection database are per The Getty Provenance Index, and NGA curatorial records.

[2] Agnew stock books, recorded by The Getty Provenance Index.

Associated Names

Agar, 2nd Earl of Normanton, Welbore Ellis
Agar, 3rd Earl of Normanton, James Charles H.W.E.
Agar, 4th Earl of Normanton, Sidney James
Agnew & Sons, Ltd., Thomas
Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll, John
Campbell, 6th Duke of Argyll, George William
Campbell, 7th Duke of Argyll, John Douglas
Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll, George Douglas
Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.
Hamilton and Brandon, Elizabeth, Duchess of
King
Sulley & Co., Arthur J.
Widener, Joseph E.
Widener, Peter Arrell Brown

Exhibition History

1882: Works by the Old Masters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1882, no. 33.

Technical Summary

The canvas is plain woven; it has been lined, and was relined in 1944. The ground is thinly applied; its color is difficult to determine. The painting is executed thinly, with thicker paint in the flesh tones and impasto in the highlights of the dress and bouquet. The blue background was applied beneath the hair, and is revealed, through losses in this area, to have been intense in color; it is uncertain whether this was the intensity of blue intended by Reynolds for the sky, or whether it was to be toned or glazed to give the somber tone it has now. The paint surface seems to have been abraded. Some of the flesh tones may have faded. There is some retouching, but there are also scattered losses overall that have not been inpainted. The natural resin varnish has discolored yellow to a significant degree.

Bibliography

1865: Leslie, Charles Robert and Tom Taylor. Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 2 vols. London, 1865: 1:161.

1899: Graves, Algernon and William Vine Cronin. A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 4 vols. London, 1899-1901: 1:repro. opp. 224; 2:422-423.

1900: Armstrong, Sir Walter. Sir Joshua Reynolds. London, 1900: 210.

1915: Roberts, William. Pictures in the Collection of P.A.B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: British and Modern French Schools, Philadelphia, 1915: unpaginated, repro.

1923: Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro.

1931: Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 174, repro.

1941: Waterhouse, Sir Ellis. Reynolds. London, 1941: 11, 43-44, pl. 43.

1948: Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 81, repro., as Lady Betty Hamilton.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 319, repro., as Lady Betty Hamilton.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 114, as Lady Betty Hamilton.

1966: Roberts, Keith. Reynolds. (The Masters series, no. 31.) Paulton, Near Bristol, London, 1966: pl. 3.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 101, repro., as Lady Betty Hamilton.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 304, repro.

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: no. 503, color repro.

1979: Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 92, pl. 80.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 361, no. 501, color repro., as Lady Betty Hamilton.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 349, 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: 210-212, repro. 211.