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Lot 9
George Romney(Beckside 1734-1802 Kendal)Portrait of Miss Mary Barnes (1745-1822), half-length, in a blue dress with white lace trim, within a painted oval
8 December 2021, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £11,475 inc. premium
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George Romney (Beckside 1734-1802 Kendal)
Portrait of Miss Mary Barnes (1745-1822), half-length, in a blue dress with white lace trim, within a painted oval
oil on canvas
77.1 x 63.9cm (30 3/8 x 25 3/16in).
oil on canvas
77.1 x 63.9cm (30 3/8 x 25 3/16in).
Footnotes
Provenance
The sitter, and thence by descent to
Mr G. Barnes, by whom given to his distant cousin
Literature
A. Kidson, George Romney. A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, London, 2015, p.51 cat. no. 56, ill.
The following 5 lots depict members of the Barnes household, all painted by George Romney and all of which have remained in the family since they were executed in the 1760s. Pater familias in this group was Henry Barnes (1702-1793); a successful lawyer who was Clerk of the Errors in the Court of Common Pleas and a Commissioner of Bankruptcy and who was also known as Secondary Barnes. This portrait is mentioned by Richard Cumberland in his obituary of George Romney published in 1803 in which he states that it was made shortly after his move to Gray's Inn (see Lit. lot 11).
A later inscription on the portrait of Secondary Barnes suggests a date of 1768 for the portrait but Kidson believes the whole group to be a little earlier in the 1760s and, if as Cumberland suggests, they were executed after his move to Gray's Inn they would date to after Romney's return from his trip to Paris in the autumn of 1764. The remaining paintings of Mrs Anne Barnes, wife of Secondary Barnes, and their children and daughter-in-law presumably date to not long after the portrait of the father – Kidson suggests that these were most probably commissioned once the initial portrait had been completed and approved. In a note in the Royal Academy sketchbook (no. 2), Romney made a note those who still owed him money. In this list there is a mention of a 'Mrs Barnse' who still had 6gns outstanding. However, it is not clear whether this refers to Anne, wife of either Secondary Barnes or his daughter-in-law, Anne (née Phillips).