Mrs. George Hill, c. 1790/1800

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 96.9 x 76.6 cm (38 1/8 x 30 3/16 in.)

framed: 120.3 x 100.3 x 8.9 cm (47 3/8 x 39 1/2 x 3 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

Accession Number

1970.17.130

Artists / Makers

Sir Henry Raeburn (artist) Scottish, 1756 - 1823

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Provenance

Painted for the Reverend George Hill [1750-1819], St. Andrews, Scotland; by descent to John Sheriff Hill [d. 1900], Dingwall, Inverness; (sale, Fraser, Inverness, 1900); bought by (Wallis & Son, London); (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), by 1911;[1] purchased by 1925[2] by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; gift by 1937 to his daughter, Ailsa Mellon Bruce [1901-1969], New York; bequest 1970 to NGA.

[1] James Greig, Sir Henry Raeburn, R.A.: His Life and Works, London, 1911: 48.

[2] Mellon owned the painting by the time he lent it to the exhibition Paintings by Old Masters from Pittsburgh Collections, shown at the Carnegie Institute in 1925.

Associated Names

Bruce, Ailsa Mellon, Mrs.
Fraser
Hill, George, The Rev.
Hill, John Sheriff
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon, Andrew W.
Wallis & Son, Henry

Exhibition History

1925: Paintings by Old Masters from Pittsburgh Collections, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1925, no. 58.

Technical Summary

The medium-weight canvas is twill woven; it has been lined. The ground is white, of moderate thickness. The painting is executed in very fluid and thin layers, blended wet into wet; the forms are vaguely blocked, only the features being crisply defined. Most of the picture surface has been solvent abraded; the texture has been flattened and the weave of the canvas impressed into the surface during lining. There is considerable retouching throughout the figure and lower background. The thickly and unevenly applied natural resin varnish, toned with carbon black, has discolored gray to a significant degree.

Bibliography

1901: Armstrong, Sir Walter. Sir Henry Raeburn. London, 1901: 104.

1911: Greig, James. Sir Henry Raeburn, R.A.: His Life and His Works. London, 1911: 48.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 278, repro.

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 370, no. 527, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 323, 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: 196-197, repro. 197.