Miss Juliana Willoughby
1781-1783
Artist, British, 1734 - 1802
Juliana Willoughby stands quietly but alertly, engaging the viewer with her direct, slightly questioning gaze. The blended harmonies of the pinks, whites, and creams of her skin tones, her dress, and her shining wisps of fine hair evoke not just Juliana, but the essence of all little girls of this age. The dramatic diagonals of the landscape, the energetic brushwork of the trees at the right, and the strong coloration of the sky provide a dynamic backdrop for the young subject.
Romney's sure sense of formal values is evident here in the effective balance of figure and landscape. In this portrait Romney successfully adapted his composition to a change in the sitter's costume, X-rays show that Juliana originally wore a small, brimless cap. During the two years it took Romney to complete the portrait, Juliana, who was by then almost six years old, had outgrown her mobcap and wore, instead, this broad-brimmed bonnet.
Like many of his contemporaries, Romney traveled to Italy, where he spent two years studying the work of Renaissance masters, in particular paintings by Titian and Raphael. The impact of these artists on his work can be seen in the simply expressed folds of Juliana's dress, the case and certainty of his outlines, and the artful balance of broad areas of color.
More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/british-paintings-16th-19th-centuries.pdf
West Building Main Floor, Gallery 59
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
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Dimensions
overall: 92.1 x 71.5 cm (36 1/4 x 28 1/8 in.)
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Accession
1937.1.104
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Painted for the sitter's father, Sir Christopher Willoughby, Bt. [1748-1808], Baldon House, Oxfordshire; by descent to Sir John Willoughby, 5th Bt.,[1] Fulmer Hall, Slough, Buckinghamshire; sold 1906 to (M. Knoedler & Co., London and New York); purchased February 1907 by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 28 December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA.
[1] The 2nd through 4th Baronets Willoughby added to the former owner table in the NGA collection database are per The Getty Provenance Index, which lists these baronets each with the symbol (?), indicating some doubt as to the painting's direct passage through these three succeeding brothers down to the 5th Bt.
Associated Names
Bibliography
1904
Ward, Humphry and William Roberts. Romney. 2 vols. London, 1904: 1:95-96, 98-99, 101; 2:172.
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 171-172, no. 104, as Miss Willoughby.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 241, repro. 18, as Miss Willoughby.
1949
Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 115, repro., as Miss Willoughby.
1951
King, Marian. Portfolio Number 3. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: no. 9, color repro.
1952
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 136, color repro., as Miss Willoughby.
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.): 42, color repro. on cover, as Miss Willoughby.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 222, repro., as Miss Willoughby.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 116, as Miss Willoughby.
1966
Henderson [later Jaffé], Patricia. George Romney. Maestri del colore series, no. 250. Milan, 1966: color pl. 14.
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:358, color repro., as Miss Willoughby.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 103, repro., as Miss Willoughby.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 308, repro., as Miss Willoughby.
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: no. 509, color repro.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 362, no. 507, color repro., as Miss Willoughby.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 354, repro., as Miss Willoughby.
1991
Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 56, 89, 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: 235-237, color repro. 236.
National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1992: 151, repro.
1993
Pointon, Marcia. Hanging the Head: Portraiture and Social Formation in Eighteenth-Century England. New Haven, 1993: 182, 184-185, color fig. 216.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 281, no. 229, color repro.
2012
Catlin, Roger. "The Candidates' Thoughts on Art? Well, the Picture's a Little Fuzzy." Washington Post 135, no. 307 (7 October 2012): E7, color repro.
Wikidata ID
Q20179083