The Hoppner Children, 1791

Provenance

The artist's wife [d. 1827]; bequeathed to her eldest son, Catherine Hampden Hoppner; bequeathed to his brother, Richard Belgrave Hoppner [d. 1872]; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 25 March 1893, no. 358, as The Hoppner Children); (Thos. Agnew & Sons, London); sold to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York);[1] purchased 1893 by Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park; gift 1942 to NGA.

Exhibition History

1791

Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1791, no. 151, as Portraits of Children.

1881

L'Art Rétrospectif, Palais de Versailles, 1881, no. 861.

Technical Summary

The medium-coarse canvas is tightly twill woven; it has been lined, but the tacking margins survive intact. The ground is white, of moderate thickness. There is a fairly thin medium gray imprimatura. These two layers mask much of the weave of the fabric. The painting is executed in moderately thick opaque layers with no notable areas of impasto; thinner layers of more transparent glazes modify the foreground and background landscape and shadowed areas and details of the figures. There is a broad craquelure. The paint is abraded and damaged in the region of the sky and the figures, but areas of retouching are not apparent through the discolored varnish. The paint surface has been flattened slightly during lining. The moderately thick slightly toned natural resin varnish has discolored yellow to a significant degree.

Bibliography

1909

McKay, William and William Roberts. John Hoppner, R.A. London, 1909: 127-128, 316, 336, repro. opp. 130; Supplement, 1914.

1915

Roberts, William. Pictures in the Collection of P.A.B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: British and Modern French Schools, Philadelphia, 1915: unpaginated, repro.

1923

Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro.

1931

Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 18, repro.

1935

Tietze, Hans. Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei in Amerika. Vienna, 1935: 233, repro. (English ed., Masterpieces of European Painting in America. New York, 1939: 233, repro.).

1942

Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 5.

1948

Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 91, 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.): 18, color repro.

1963

Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 320, repro.

1965

Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 70.

1968

National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 61, repro.

1975

European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 178, repro.

1975

Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: no. 519, color repro.

1984

Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 365, no. 513, color repro.

1985

European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 207, repro.

1991

Wilson, John Human. "The Life and Art of John Hoppner (1758-1810)." Ph.D. diss., Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, 1991.

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: 130-133, repro. 133.

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