GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The sitter for this portrait, the youngest daughter of the English Prime Minister, Henry Pelham, and his wife Lady Catherine, is elegantly dressed for winter in a black silk cloak and hood, her lace sleeves peeking out from under her mantle. Her hands are tucked inside a prominently displayed fur muff and the crown of her head is decorated with a hair ornament known as a pompon (popularized by Louis XV’s famous mistress, Madame de Pompadour). Miss Pelham sat for the artist several times throughout the spring of 1757 while he painted her portrait. Sir Joshua Reynolds most likely used these sittings to paint Miss Pelham’s face, adding the details of her clothes and jewelry later. While her facial features and hair are painted delicately and in fine detail, Reynolds used a very loose, liquid brushstroke in other areas of the painting, such as in her earrings and the blue ribbon at her neck.
This portrait is a good example of Reynolds’ attempt to achieve the psychological immediacy associated with his older rival, the Scottish portraitist Alan Ramsay (1713-1784). Miss Pelham is shown as if listening intently, her head slightly tilted to one side, and her soft but keen gaze directed at the viewer. The trompe-l’œil roundel used to frame the sitter was a convention Reynolds may have learned from his first teacher, the portraitist Thomas Hudson. It was a format that Reynolds decided on later in the painting’s creation, evidenced by the vestiges of Miss Pelham’s lace sleeve, now visible through the layer of paint used to describe the oval “window.”
Adapted from
- Dr. Eik Kahng, DMA unpublished material, 2000.
NOTES
This note was originally drafted by Franny Brock, Dedo and Barron Kidd McDermott Graduate Intern for European Art, May 2016. I have reviewed the content and transfered her work into Evernote for proper routing- September 2016. (EAS)
c, 1757
General Description from Dr. Eik Kahng, DMA Acquisition Proposal, September 20, 2000.
Checked Piction
Need to add sitter as depicted individual in order to get a constituent id.
Check the number for this tag- lace (needlework): AAT: 300264696
How does the AAT deal with centuries? Does this help our tagging/dating process?- eighteenth century: AAT: 300404512
The sitter for this portrait, the youngest daughter of the English Prime Minister, Henry Pelham, and his wife Lady Catherine, is elegantly dressed for winter in a black silk cloak and hood, her lace sleeves peeking out from under her mantle. Her hands are tucked inside a prominently displayed fur muff and the crown of her head is decorated with a hair ornament known as a pompon (popularized by Louis XV’s famous mistress, Madame de Pompadour). Miss Pelham sat for the artist several times throughout the spring of 1757 while he painted her portrait. Sir Joshua Reynolds most likely used these sittings to paint Miss Pelham’s face, adding the details of her clothes and jewelry later. While her facial features and hair are painted delicately and in fine detail, Reynolds used a very loose, liquid brushstroke in other areas of the painting, such as in her earrings and the blue ribbon at her neck.
This portrait is a good example of Reynolds’ attempt to achieve the psychological immediacy associated with his older rival, the Scottish portraitist Alan Ramsay (1713-1784). Miss Pelham is shown as if listening intently, her head slightly tilted to one side, and her soft but keen gaze directed at the viewer. The trompe-l’œil roundel used to frame the sitter was a convention Reynolds may have learned from his first teacher, the portraitist Thomas Hudson. It was a format that Reynolds decided on later in the painting’s creation, evidenced by the vestiges of Miss Pelham’s lace sleeve, now visible through the layer of paint used to describe the oval “window.”
Dr. Eik Kahng, DMA Acquisition Proposal (2000.378), September 20, 2000.
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
canvas: AAT: 300014078
eighteenth century: AAT: 300404512
England: TGN: 7002445
fashion: AAT: 300055811
Great Britain (island): TGN: 7008653
Jewelry: AAT: 300209286
muffs: AAT: 300210014
oil paint (paint): AAT: 300015050
portraits: AAT: 300015637
Reynolds_Joshua: ULAN: 500004539
women: AAT: 300025943
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FUN FACTS
- Six sittings for “Miss M. Pelham” are recorded in Sir Joshua Reynolds’ diary from March and April, 1757. The appointments occurred on March 26, April 7 and 12 (all at 11:00), April 18 (at 2:00), April 22 (at 1:00), and April 27 (midday). There is a cancelled appointment on June 20 (at 2:00).
- This portrait was commissioned by Miss Pelham’s uncle, Thomas Pelham, Duke of Newcastle. Thomas Pelham also commissioned a portrait of Mary’s slightly older married sister, Lady Sondes. A payment of thirty guineas from “Duke of Newcastle for Lady Sonds [sic] & Miss Pelham,” is recorded in Reynolds’ ledger on July 14, 1769, evidently paid by the Duke’s executors. The portrait of Lady Sondes is owned by the Museo Lázaro Galdiano in Madrid, Spain and is also painted with an oval framing the sitter.
- Costume historian, Aileen Ribeiro notes that Miss Pelham is “dressed for winter. She is enveloped in a black silk mantle, which just allows the fine soft bobbin lace sleeve ruffles to be seen. A black silk hood tied under the chin is pushed back to reveal a small paste hair ornament or pompon (after Madame de Pompadour)—one of many French rococo fashions adopted in England in the 1750s. The muff is of a fur which it is hard to identify, but which may be monkey skin.” It has also been suggested that the muff could be made of feathers.
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General Description
The sitter for this portrait, the youngest daughter of the English Prime Minister, Henry Pelham, and his wife Lady Catherine, is elegantly dressed for winter in a black silk cloak and hood, her lace sleeves peeking out from under her mantle. Her hands are tucked inside a prominently displayed fur muff and the crown of her head is decorated with a hair ornament known as a pompon (popularized by Louis XV’s famous mistress, Madame de Pompadour). Miss Pelham sat for the artist several times throughout the spring of 1757 while he painted her portrait. Sir Joshua Reynolds most likely used these sittings to paint Miss Pelham’s face, adding the details of her clothes and jewelry later. While her facial features and hair are painted delicately and in fine detail, Reynolds used a very loose, liquid brushstroke in other areas of the painting, such as in her earrings and the blue ribbon at her neck.
This portrait is a good example of Reynolds’ attempt to achieve the psychological immediacy associated with his older rival, the Scottish portraitist Alan Ramsay (1713-1784). Miss Pelham is shown as if listening intently, her head slightly tilted to one side, and her soft but keen gaze directed at the viewer. The trompe-l’œil roundel used to frame the sitter was a convention Reynolds may have learned from his first teacher, the portraitist Thomas Hudson. It was a format that Reynolds decided on later in the painting’s creation, evidenced by the vestiges of Miss Pelham’s lace sleeve, now visible through the layer of paint used to describe the oval “window.”
Adapted from
- Dr. Eik Kahng, DMA unpublished material, 2000.
Fun Facts
- Six sittings for “Miss M. Pelham” are recorded in Sir Joshua Reynolds’ diary from March and April, 1757. The appointments occurred on March 26, April 7 and 12 (all at 11:00), April 18 (at 2:00), April 22 (at 1:00), and April 27 (midday). There is a cancelled appointment on June 20 (at 2:00).
- This portrait was commissioned by Miss Pelham’s uncle, Thomas Pelham, Duke of Newcastle. Thomas Pelham also commissioned a portrait of Mary’s slightly older married sister, Lady Sondes. A payment of thirty guineas from “Duke of Newcastle for Lady Sonds [sic] & Miss Pelham,” is recorded in Reynolds’ ledger on July 14, 1769, evidently paid by the Duke’s executors. The portrait of Lady Sondes is owned by the Museo Lázaro Galdiano in Madrid, Spain and is also painted with an oval framing the sitter.
- Costume historian, Aileen Ribeiro notes that Miss Pelham is “dressed for winter. She is enveloped in a black silk mantle, which just allows the fine soft bobbin lace sleeve ruffles to be seen. A black silk hood tied under the chin is pushed back to reveal a small paste hair ornament or pompon (after Madame de Pompadour)—one of many French rococo fashions adopted in England in the 1750s. The muff is of a fur which it is hard to identify, but which may be monkey skin.” It has also been suggested that the muff could be made of feathers.
Archival Resources
Web Resources
Notes
This note was originally drafted by Franny Brock, Dedo and Barron Kidd McDermott Graduate Intern for European Art, May 2016. I have reviewed the content and transfered her work into Evernote for proper routing- September 2016. (EAS)
c, 1757
General Description from Dr. Eik Kahng, DMA Acquisition Proposal, September 20, 2000.
Checked Piction
Need to add sitter as depicted individual in order to get a constituent id.
Check the number for this tag- lace (needlework): AAT: 300264696
How does the AAT deal with centuries? Does this help our tagging/dating process?- eighteenth century: AAT: 300404512
The sitter for this portrait, the youngest daughter of the English Prime Minister, Henry Pelham, and his wife Lady Catherine, is elegantly dressed for winter in a black silk cloak and hood, her lace sleeves peeking out from under her mantle. Her hands are tucked inside a prominently displayed fur muff and the crown of her head is decorated with a hair ornament known as a pompon (popularized by Louis XV’s famous mistress, Madame de Pompadour). Miss Pelham sat for the artist several times throughout the spring of 1757 while he painted her portrait. Sir Joshua Reynolds most likely used these sittings to paint Miss Pelham’s face, adding the details of her clothes and jewelry later. While her facial features and hair are painted delicately and in fine detail, Reynolds used a very loose, liquid brushstroke in other areas of the painting, such as in her earrings and the blue ribbon at her neck.
This portrait is a good example of Reynolds’ attempt to achieve the psychological immediacy associated with his older rival, the Scottish portraitist Alan Ramsay (1713-1784). Miss Pelham is shown as if listening intently, her head slightly tilted to one side, and her soft but keen gaze directed at the viewer. The trompe-l’œil roundel used to frame the sitter was a convention Reynolds may have learned from his first teacher, the portraitist Thomas Hudson. It was a format that Reynolds decided on later in the painting’s creation, evidenced by the vestiges of Miss Pelham’s lace sleeve, now visible through the layer of paint used to describe the oval “window.”
Dr. Eik Kahng, DMA Acquisition Proposal (2000.378), September 20, 2000.
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
canvas: AAT: 300014078
eighteenth century: AAT: 300404512
England: TGN: 7002445
fashion: AAT: 300055811
Great Britain (island): TGN: 7008653
Jewelry: AAT: 300209286
muffs: AAT: 300210014
oil paint (paint): AAT: 300015050
portraits: AAT: 300015637
Reynolds_Joshua: ULAN: 500004539
women: AAT: 300025943
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