Mrs. John Taylor

c. 1778

Thomas Gainsborough

Artist, British, 1727 - 1788

A pale-skinned woman is shown from the waist up within an oval opening in this vertical portrait painting. The woman’s body is angled to our right, but she turns her face to look off to our left with gray eyes. She has a thin, oval-shaped face, a long nose, and her dark pink lips are closed. Her ash-brown hair is swept up and back from her forehead, and some curls hang down the back of her neck. A sheer veil drapes over her hair and down around her sloping shoulders. The bodice of her ivory-yellow gown is cut low and lined with lace. Pearls ornament the front of the dress and part of the sleeve closer to us, and an aquamarine-blue cloth with gold touches is tied around her waist. The corners around the oval opening are painted to look like wood in shades of warm brown. The background behind the woman is nearly black to our left and it lightens to earthy brown to the right. The portrait is loosely painted, especially in the hair, clothing, and background.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall (oval): 76 x 64 cm (29 15/16 x 25 3/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1937.1.100

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Painted for the sitter's husband, John Taylor [1738-1814], Bordesley Park and Moseley Hall, Birmingham; by descent to George W. Taylor, Pickenhall Hall, Swaffham, Norfolk, who sold it sometime after 1903.[1] (Trotti et cie., Paris). (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); purchased September 1905(?)[2] 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 painting was still in his possession when it was exhibited at Birmingham; Loan Collection of Portraits, City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, 1903, no. 27.
[2] The Getty Provenance Index, whose source was M. Knoedler & Co., records Trotti et cie., Paris, as owning this painting in 1906. The provenance card in NGA curatorial files records the work as having been purchased by Andrew Mellon in 1905. David Finley's notebook on Andrew Mellon's acquisitions (copy in NGA curatorial files, original in Gallery Archives) records the painting as purchased from M. Knoedler & Co. without giving a date.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1903

  • Loan Collection of Portraits, City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, 1903, no. 27.

Bibliography

1898

  • Armstrong, Sir Walter. Gainsborough & His Place in English Art. London, 1898: 203; popular ed., London, 1904: 280.

1903

  • Wallis, Whitworth. Catalogue of Loan Collection of Portraits. Birmingham, 1903: nos. 26, 27.

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 72, no. 100.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 241, repro. 13.

1949

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 101, repro.

1958

  • Waterhouse, Sir Ellis. Gainsborough. London, 1958: no. 655.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 54.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 47, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 142, repro.

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: no. 508, color repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 361, no. 506, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 164, 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: 90-92, repro. 91.

Wikidata ID

Q20178899

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