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Thomas Gainsborough (artist) British, 1727 - 1788 Miss Catherine Tatton, 1786 oil on canvas Overall: 76 x 64 cm (29 15/16 x 25 3/16 in.) framed: 104.5 x 91.8 x 14 cm (41 1/8 x 36 1/8 x 5 1/2 in.) Andrew W. Mellon Collection 1937.1.99 |
Object 4 of 8
Provenance
Painted May 1786 for the sitter's family;[1] probably the sitter's son, the Reverend William Drake-Brockman [1788-1847], Beachborough, Kent; by descent[2] to William Drake-Brockman [1882-1970], Beachborough; purchased 1908 by (P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London); sold to Herbert, 1st baron Michelham [1851-1919], Hellingly, Sussex; (sale, Hampton & Sons, London, on the premises, 20 Arlington Street, London, 23-24 November 1926, 2nd day, no. 290);[3] (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); sold 1927 to 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] The provenance published in the 1992 NGA systematic catalogue (John Hayes, British Painting of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries) states that the painting was executed in 1786 on the occasion of the sitter's marriage, for her father, the Reverend William Tatton, D.D., rector of Rotherfield, Sussex, and prebendary of Canterbury Cathedral, and that payment to the artist was recorded in the Rev. Tatton's account book of that year. This information is partially in error. While the date is correct, the account book that recorded the payment was not that of the Rev. Tatton, who died 11 February 1782, but that of his brother-in-law and executor, the sitter's uncle, the Rev. John Lynch, Archdeacon of Canterbury. The sitter was the only surviving child of the Rev. Lynch's sister, Sarah, and may have been his special responsibility. Catherine sat for her portrait in May 1786, when the Reverend recorded the payment of 1 shilling to the artist's servant, and the full fee of 34 pounds, 2 shillings and sixpence, was paid to the painter a few weeks later. Catherine was married on 7 June 1786, to James Drake-Brockman, but it is not known exactly which family member(s) first owned the portrait. (See information about the account book in NGA curatorial files.)
[2] The additional names of the sitter's descendants that are listed in the former owner table of the NGA collection database are per Burke's Peerage and The Getty Provenance Index.
[3] The sale of Baron Michelham's collection was held by direction of his widow, Aimée Geraldine, who had remarried in February of that year.
Associated Names
- Colnaghi & Co., Ltd., P. & D.
- Drake-Brockman, Francis
- Drake-Brockman, Frederick
- Drake-Brockman, Tatton, Rev.
- Drake-Brockman, William
- Drake-Brockman, William, Rev.
- Duveen Brothers, Inc.
- Mellon, Andrew W.
- Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
- Sale, London
- Stern, 1st Baron Michelham, Herbert, Sir
- Stern, 1st Baron Michelham, Herbert, Sir
- Stern, Lady Michelham, Aimée Geraldine Bradshaw
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