Elizabeth, Countess of Effingham

c. 1797

Benjamin West

Painter, American, 1738 - 1820

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 146.3 x 115.6 cm (57 5/8 x 45 1/2 in.)
    framed: 178.1 x 147 x 10.2 cm (70 1/8 x 57 7/8 x 4 in.)

  • Accession

    1947.17.101

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

William Beckford [1760-1844], Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire, and Bath, England; his daughter, Susan Euphemia Beckford, 10th Duchess of Hamilton [1786-1859], Hamilton Palace, County Lanark, Scotland; by descent to William Alexander Louis Stephen Douglas-Hamilton, 12th Duke of Hamilton [1845-1895]; (his estate sale, Christie, Manson and Woods, London, 6 November 1919, no. 77); bought by (Tooth Brothers, London);[1] sold 4 February 1920 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848 1931], New York;[2] his estate; sold as part of the Clarke collection on 29 January 1936, through (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1947 to NGA.
[1] Christie, Manson and Woods, Catalogue of Family Portraits: Works by Old Masters and Modern Pictures: The Property of The Trustees of His Grace the Late Duke of Hamilton, 6-7 November 1919, London; annotated copy, Frick Art Reference Library, New York (copy, NGA).
[2] The name of the seller and the date of purchase are recorded in a copy of Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Collected by Thomas B. Clarke, Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928, annotated with information from files of M. Knoedler & Co., NY (copy in NGA curatorial records and in NGA library).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1921

  • Exhibition of Paintings by Early American Portrait Painters, The Union League Club, New York, November 1921, no. 18, as Elizabeth Beckford.

1928

  • Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Collected by Thomas B. Clarke, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928-1931, unnumbered and unpaginated catalogue, as Elizabeth Gordon.

1982

  • Extended loan for use by the Ambassador, U.S. Embassy residence, Stockholm, Sweden, 1982-1986.

Bibliography

1801

  • Britton, John. The Beauties of Wiltshire. 10 vols. London, 1801: 1:230.

1805

  • "A Correct Catalogue of the Works of Mr. West." Public Characters of 1805. London, 1805: 561.

  • "A Correct List of the Works of Mr. West." Universal Magazine 3 (1805): 528.

1808

  • "A Correct Catalogue of the Works of Benjamin West, Esq." La Belle Assemblée or Bell's Court and Fashionable Magazine 4, Supplement (1908): 14, no. 135.

1820

  • Galt, John. "A Catalogue of the Works of Mr. West." The Life, Studies, and Works of Benjamin West, Esq.. London, 1820: 220.

1859

  • Redding, Cyrus, ed. Memoirs of William Beckford. 2 vols. London, 1859: 2:369-370.

1893

  • Lansdown, H. V. Recollections of the Late William Beckford, of Fonthill, Wilts. and Lansdown, Bath. Edited by Charlotte Lansdown. Privately printed, 1893: 9.

1928

  • Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Collected by Thomas B. Clarke. Exh. cat. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928, unnumbered, as Elizabeth Gordon.

1954

  • Gardner, Albert Ten Eyck. "Beckford's Gothic Wests." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 13 (October 1954): 41-49.

1957

  • Alexander, Boyd, ed. Life at Fonthill, 1807-1822, With Interludes in Paris and London, from the Correspondence of William Beckford. London, 1957: 336.

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 120, repro.

1977

  • Dillenberger 1977, 151, no. 135.

1980

  • Hamilton-Phillips, Martha. "Benjamin West and William Beckford: Some Projects for Fonthill." Metropolitan Museum Journal 15 (1980): 157-174, repro.

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 255, repro.

1986

  • Von Erffa and Staley 1986, 107, 504-505, no. 615, repro.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 378, repro.

1995

  • Miles, Ellen G. American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 341-344, repro. 343.

Inscriptions

lower right: B. West; on back of canvas in a later hand: Elisabeth Countess of Effingham / Daughter of Peter Beckford Esq:r

Wikidata ID

Q20180311

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