Lot 57*
Sir Joshua Reynolds P.R.A.(Plympton 1723-1792 London)Portrait of Mary Barnardiston, half-length, in a white dress and a blue fur-lined shawl
3 December 2025, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£15,000 - £20,000
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Sir Joshua Reynolds P.R.A. (Plympton 1723-1792 London)
Portrait of Mary Barnardiston, half-length, in a white dress and a blue fur-lined shawl
oil on canvas
75.4 x 61.4cm (29 11/16 x 24 3/16in).
oil on canvas
75.4 x 61.4cm (29 11/16 x 24 3/16in).
Footnotes
Provenance
The sitter and thence by descent to Maria Agatha Whetham of Kirklington Hall, Southwell, Nottinghamshire, wife of Colonel Alexander Boddam (who took the name Boddam-Whetham) and by descent until sold to
The Collection of Stephen Christy, 1883
The Collection of H.A. Christy Esq., 1903
G. Chichester sale, Sotheby's, London, 4 April, 1973, lot 66 (bt Maple)
Sale, Sotheby's, New York, 19 May 1995, lot 173
Exhibited
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, Loan of Portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds, George Romney, Thomas Gainsborough, John Hoppner, Sir Henry Raeburn, and other artists, 1903, no. 36, lent by H.A. Christy Esq.
Literature
A. Graves and W. V. Cronin, A history of the works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A., 1899, vol I, p. 52, vol. IV, p. 1471
Loan of Portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds, George Romney, Thomas Gainsborough, John Hoppner, Sir Henry Raeburn, and other artists, Birmingham, 1903, exh, cat. no. 36, ill. pl. 36
E. K. Waterhouse, 'Reynolds' Sitter book for 1755', in Walpole Society, xli, 1966-68, p. 142
D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds. A complete catalogue of his paintings, New Haven, 2000, p. 74, cat. no. 112, ill. p. 177, no. 152
Mannings dates the present lot to probably 1755-56. Reynolds recorded two sittings (one of which was cancelled) with Mary Barnardiston in 1755, as well as one in 1757, though Waterhouse suggested there were plausibly further sittings in 1754 and 1756, for which there are no pocket books. Mary's sister, Anne Whetham, also sat for Reynolds during the same years; her portrait is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (acc. no. 496-1883).