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John Hoppner

The Frankland Sisters, 1795

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 59

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 155 x 125 cm (61 x 49 3/16 in.)

framed: 182.2 x 151.8 cm (71 3/4 x 59 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1937.1.111

Artists / Makers

John Hoppner (artist) British, 1758 - 1810

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

by later hand, lower left: MARIANNE & AMELIA / DAUGHTERS OF SIR T. FRANKLAND OB 1795 & 1800; lower right: HOPNER [sic]

Provenance

Painted for the sitters' father, Sir Thomas Frankland, 6th Bt. [1750-1831], Thirkleby, Yorkshire; by descent to his granddaughter, Rosalind Alicia Frankland-Russel-Astley [d. 1900], Chequers Court, Buckinghamshire; sold c. 1896 to (Thos. Agnew & Sons, London); purchased 1896 by John H. McFadden. Presumably sold back to (Thos. Agnew & Sons, London);[1] purchased 1898 by Sir Charles Clow Tennant, 1st bt. [1823-1906], The Glen, near Innerleithen, Peeblesshire, Scotland; by descent to his grandson, Christopher Grey Tennant, 2nd baron Glenconner [1899-1983], The Glen; sold July 1923 to (Charles Carstairs for M. Knoedler & Co., London and New York);[2] purchased November 1923 by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] Geoffrey (later Sir Geoffrey) Agnew, Agnew's 1817-1967, London, 1967, 36, pl. The plate records J.H. McFadden and Sir Charles Tennant as the owners in 1896 and 1898 respectively.

[2] James Dugdale, "Sir Charles Tennant: the Story of a Victorian Collector," Connoisseur 178 (1971), 11-12. A group of ten paintings was purchased by Carstairs in July 1923 and was exhibited in 1924 at Knoedler's new headquarters in New York, whence the Hoppner was purchased by Andrew Mellon shortly before the exhibition.

Associated Names

Agnew & Sons, Ltd., Thomas
Agnew & Sons, Ltd., Thomas
Frankland, 6th Bt., Thomas, Sir
Frankland-Russell-Astley, Rosalind Alicia
Knoedler & Company, M.
McFadden, John H.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Mellon, Andrew W.
Tennant, Charles Clow, 1st bt., Sir
Tennant, Christopher Grey, 2nd baron Glenconner

Exhibition History

1795: Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1795, no. 90, as Portraits of Young Ladies.

1896: Twenty Masterpieces of the English School, Thos. Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London, 1896, no. 10.

1902: Paintings by French and British Artists of the 18th Century, Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, 1902, no. 109.

1903: Loan Collection of Portraits, City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, 1903, no. 32.

1904: Inaugural Exhibition of Pictures, Laing Art Gallery, New castle-upon-Tyne, 1904, no. 20.

1906: Works by the Old Masters and Deceased Masters of the British School, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1906, no. 79.

1908: Franco-British Exhibition, Fine Art Palace, London, 1908, no. 74 (illustrated review, repro, cover, 25).

1924: Ten Paintings from the Tennant-Glenconner Collection, M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York, 1924, no. 1.

Technical Summary

The medium-lightweight canvas is twill woven; it has been lined. There are stretcher creases along the top, left, and bottom edges; the variance in distance between each crease and the edge of the painting, and the absence of a crease along the right edge, suggest that the painting has been cut down on these three sides. The ground is white, of moderate thickness, and almost masks the weave of the canvas. Layers of gray and pale-brown paint observed beneath the surface paint of the clouds and sky suggest that an imprimatura has been selectively applied. The painting is executed in thin, multiple, opaque layers in the figures with some thicker brushwork but without high impasto; the foreground and background landscape is rendered in dark translucent layers with opaque touches for details of the foliage. The paint surface is moderately abraded and has been flattened slightly during lining. There is a considerable degree of traction crackle throughout, suggestive of the presence of bitumen; this has been extensively overpainted, and there are losses to the paint surface. There are also extensive retouchings in some of the principal features, such as the dog and details of the hands, drapery, and background. The natural resin varnish has discolored yellow slightly.

Bibliography

1795: Morning Post, 27 May 1795.

1795: St. James's Chronicle, 5-7 May 1795.

1909: McKay, William and William Roberts. John Hoppner, R.A.. London, 1909: vii, 87-88, repro. opp. 86; Supplement, 1914.

1910: Catalogue of Pictures in the Tennant Gallery 34 Queen Anne's Gate, S.W.. London, n.d. [c.1910]: 7, 19, color frontispiece.

1937: Cortissoz, Royal. An Introduction to the Mellon Collection. Boston, 1937: repro. opposite page 44

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 100, no. 111.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 241, repro. 16.

1949: Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 121, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 69.

1968: Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 14, 146-147, color repro.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 61, repro.

1971: Dugdale, James. "Sir Charles Tennant: the Story of a Victorian Collector." The Connoisseur 178 (1971): 2, color repro., 6, 12.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 178, repro.

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: no. 521, color repro.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 365, no. 514, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 206, repro.

1991: Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 68, 89, color repro.

1991: Wilson, John Human. "The Life and Art of John Hoppner (1758-1810)." Ph.D. dissertation, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, 1991.

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: 134-136, color repro. 135.