David Anderson, 1790

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 152.5 x 107.5 cm (60 1/16 x 42 5/16 in.)

Credit Line

Widener Collection

Accession Number

1942.9.56

Artists / Makers

Sir Henry Raeburn (painter) Scottish, 1756 - 1823

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

Painted for Warren Hastings [1732-1818], Daylesford House, Gloucestershire, probably upon whose death it was returned to the sitter;[1] by descent to Captain David Anderson [1867-1944], Bourhouse, Dunbar, East Lothian [Scotland].[2] (Dott & Co., Edinburgh); sold 1900 to (P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London); purchased October 1903 by Dr. Eissler [probably one of the brothers, Dr. Gottfried Eissler, 1862-1924, or Dr. Hermann Eissler, 1860-1953, both Vienna].[3] purchased c. 1924 by Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, after purchase by funds of the Estate; gift 1942 to NGA.

[1] David Anderson (1750-1825), of St. Germains, near Tranent, East Lothian, served in India with Warren Hastings, the first governor-general. The two became lifelong friends, and when they returned to England in 1785 they agreed to exchange portraits of each other. Anderson wrote to Hastings on 7 July 1790 that he had begun sitting to Raeburn (British Library Add. MS. 45,418:fol. 375). According to Kathleen Bliss, London, who was married to a direct descendant of David Anderson, the Raeburn portrait was returned to David Anderson either after Warren Hastings' impeachment trial, which lasted from 1784 to 1795, or after Hastings' death (letter, Mrs. Bliss to John Walker, NGA chief curator, 16 April 1947, in NGA curatorial files).

Hastings, in turn, had originally wanted Sir Joshua Reynolds to paint his portrait, but eventually commissioned Lemuel Abbot and sent the finished painting to Anderson in early 1797. Although John Hayes (in British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue, Cambridge, England, 1992: 194) writes that the original Abbot portrait is now in the Victoria Memorial Museum in Calcutta, this is not the case. Abbot's first portrait of Hastings has remained in the possession of Anderson's descendants, and in 2003 was owned by David Anderson's great-great-great-granddaughter, Margaret Elizabeth Anderson Aynscough (Mrs. James Vernon Aynscough). The painting in Calcutta is one of at least eight copies made by Abbot after the original version, and Hastings also distributed copies by other artists (see correspondence in 2003 with Stephen Aynscough, in NGA curatorial files).

[2] The provenance from Captain Anderson to Dr. Eissler is recorded in James Greig, Sir Henry Raeburn, R.A., London, 1911: 37.

[3] Colnaghi's stock books (Roderic Thesiger, letter, 23 September 1969, in NGA curatorial files). The painting was not included in the sale of Gottfreid Eissler's estate in Vienna, 6-7 May 1925. There was also a sale of the Eissler collection at Pisko in Vienna in March 1908 that included a Raeburn, but it has not been identified.

Associated Names

Anderson, David
Anderson, David Murray, Capt.
Colnaghi & Co., Ltd., P. & D.
Dott & Co.
Eissler, Gottfried Dr.
Eissler, Hermann Dr.
Hastings, Warren
Widener, Joseph E.

Technical Summary

The medium-heavy canvas is tightly twill woven; it has been lined. The ground is white, containing white lead, and is thinly applied. The painting is executed in thin layers, with little evidence of brushmarks, and in some areas the paint does not completely cover the ground. X-radiographs and an infrared reflectograph show a woman's body to the left of the figure, and a thin but apparently bent implement depending from the man's left arm. There is some scattered unevenness in the paint surface, perhaps due to lumps in the lining adhesive. The paint surface has also been slightly abraded. The head and hair of the sitter are disfigured by shrinkage crackle in the darks. There are scattered small retouches, principally in the areas of pentimenti. The thick varnish has discolored yellow to a significant degree.

Bibliography

1901: Armstrong, Sir Walter. Sir Henry Raeburn. London, 1901: 95.

1911: Greig, James. Sir Henry Raeburn, R.A.: His Life and Works. London, 1911: 37.

1931: Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 172, repro.

1948: Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 90, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 106.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 94, repro.

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: no. 523, color repro.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 368, no. 521, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 322, 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: 192-194, repro. 193.