Mrs. Paul Cobb Methuen

c. 1776/1777

Thomas Gainsborough

Artist, British, 1727 - 1788

Shown from the waist up, a young, pale-skinned woman with her gray hair piled high atop her head is lit starkly against a dark background in this vertical portrait painting. The woman’s shoulders are angled to our left. Her face is square to us, but she looks off to our right from the corners of her eyes, which are gray rimmed with golden brown around the pupils. She has a thin face, smooth cheeks, a bow-shaped pink mouth, and a narrow chin. Her hair is mostly swept up high under a bank of pearl-white feathers and some sparkling ornaments. A few ringlets hang down the back of her neck. The bodice of her white dress scoops low across her chest and sits just above her sloping shoulders. The dress is adorned with pearls on the sleeves and around the neckline, and the fabric shimmers from silvery white to pale gold. The background is earth-brown around her face and deepens to almost black in the corners.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Widener Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 84 x 71 cm (33 1/16 x 27 15/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1942.9.20

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Probably intended for the sitter's husband, Paul Cobb Methuen [1752-1816], Corsham Court, Wiltshire, but possibly neither finished nor delivered. Possibly (Mrs. Gainsborough sale, Christie's, London, 10-11 April 1797, 1st day, no. 12);[1] Caleb Whitefoord [1734-1810]. Paul Sanford Methuen, 3rd baron Methuen [1845-1932], Corsham Court; purchased c.1893 by (Wallis & Son, London); sold 1893 to Peter A.B. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from the Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park; gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] Sir Ellis Waterhouse, Gainsborough, London, 1958: no. 483, has suggested that this lot, one of a number of unfinished portraits in the sale, may be identical with the Washington picture, a view that is supported by the evidence of the change in format and additions to the canvas, and by the absence of documentation in the Corsham Court archives.

Associated Names

Bibliography

1856

  • Fulcher, George Williams. Life of Thomas Gainsborough, R.A.. 2d rev. ed., London, 1856: 229.

1898

  • Armstrong, Sir Walter. Gainsborough & His Place in English Art. London, 1898: 199; popular ed., London, 1904: 273.

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., as Portrait of Mrs. Methuen.

1931

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 8, repro., as Portrait of Mrs. Methuen.

1942

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

1948

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 84, repro., as Mrs. Methuen.

1958

  • Waterhouse, Sir Ellis. Gainsborough. London, 1958: no. 483.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 55, Mrs. Methuen.

1968

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

1975

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

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 165, 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: 87-90, repro. 89.

Wikidata ID

Q20178812

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