National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Lady Caroline Howard
  • Overview
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

Lady Caroline Howard, daughter of Frederick, the fifth Earl of Carlisle, and Margaret Caroline Howard, and niece of Lady Delmé, was portrayed by Reynolds at the age of seven.

Reynolds deliberately imposed on his compositions certain formal artistic qualities that would give them the solidity and nobility of Greek, Roman, and Renaissance art. He also liked to suggest associations in his portraits that elevate them to some level beyond the merely descriptive. Roses are symbolically related to Venus and the Three Graces, and Reynolds may well have intended to allude to their attributes, Chastity, Beauty, and Love, as ideals to which Lady Caroline should aspire.

Lady Caroline's father affectionately described his daughter as a determined, strong-minded child whose need for discipline he met fairly but reluctantly. He wrote that she was "always a great favorite," suggesting that her spirited personality made her faults tolerable. Reynolds captured some of Lady Caroline's complexity in the serious, intent expression of her attractive face, her averted gaze, and the tension implied in her closed left hand.

Inscription

by another later hand, lower right : Lady Caroline Howard / Lady Cawdor.

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

Painted for the sitter's father, Frederick Howard, 5th earl of Carlisle [1748-1825], Castle Howard, Yorkshire; by descent[1] to the Hon. Geoffrey Howard [1877-1935], son of George, 9th earl of Carlisle, who sold it February 1926 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); purchased 3 February 1926 by 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 addition of the 7th Earl of Carlisle to Ownership Detail below is per NGA curatorial files.

Exhibition History

1779
Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1779, no. 252, as A young lady.
1824
Pictures of the Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch and English Schools, British Institution, London, 1824, no. 162.
1851
Pictures of the Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, French, and English Masters, British Institution, London, 1851, no. 118.
1856
Ancient and Modern, Irish Institution, Dublin, 1856, no. 20.
1934
British Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1934, no. 315 (commemorative catalogue, 1935, no. 145, pl. 45).
1986
Reynolds, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1986, no. 107, color repro.

Bibliography

1779
St. James's Chronicle, 24-27 April 1779.
1865
Leslie, Charles Robert and Tom Taylor. Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 2 vols. London, 1865: 2:427.
1899
Graves, Algernon and William Vine Cronin. A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 4 vols. London, 1899-1901: 2:487-488.
1900
Armstrong, Sir Walter. Sir Joshua Reynolds. London, 1900: 213.
1941
Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 266, repro., no. 267, detail repro.
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 167-168, pl. X.
1941
Waterhouse, Sir Ellis. Reynolds. London, 1941: 70, pl. 211.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 241, repro. 18.
1944
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 132, color repro.
1949
Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 107, repro.
1951
King, Marian. Portfolio Number 3. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: no. 8, color repro.
1956
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 48, color repro.
1960
Cooke, Hereward Lester. British Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Eight in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 14, color repro.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 220, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 113
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:348, color repro.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 101, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 302, repro.
1975
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: no. 502, color repro.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 358, no. 500, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 349, repro.
1991
Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 60, 259, color 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: 217-219, color repro. 219.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 148, repro.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 280, no. 226, color repro.

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