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A young woman with smooth, pale skin wearing a fog-gray gown stands in shadowy outdoor setting in this vertical portrait painting. Her body faces our right almost in profile. Her head turns toward us though she looks off to our left with brown eyes under arched brows. Auburn-brown hair frames her heart-shaped face, which has a slender nose over closed, coral-red lips and a dimpled chin. Her long, curly hair is gathered at the back of her head and tied with a sand-brown ribbon. Long tendrils hang down her shoulders and back. Her iridescent gown has a deep neckline and a wide, harvest-gold sash around her waist with matching bands on the upper arms. A shimmering, laurel-green cape bordered in gold falls from her shoulders in deep folds down her back. The woman has pulled some of the cape forward with both hands to hang down her left side, farther from us. She wears delicate, translucent pearl bracelets on one wrist, and steps forward on silvery-gray shoes under the dress’s long hem. Bright light falls across the scene from the upper left so much of the background is in shadow. A stone wall behind the woman spans the right half of the painting. A tree grows up along its leftmost edge, just beyond the woman’s shoulders. A landscape along the left third of the composition opens onto trees under a sky filled with thick, off-white and steel-gray clouds.

George Romney

Mrs. Thomas Scott Jackson, c. 1770/1773

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 239 x 147 cm (94 1/8 x 57 7/8 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1937.1.94

Artists / Makers

George Romney (artist) British, 1734 - 1802

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

Painted for the sitter's first husband, Thomas Scott Jackson [d. 1791]; by descent to the sitter's daughter, Maria [d. 1830], who married Sir John Grey-Egerton, 8th Bt. of Oulton; by descent to Sir Philip Grey-Egerton, 12th Bt. [1864-1937]; sold c. 1905 to (Thos. Agnew & Sons, London). (Robert Langton Douglas (1864-1951), London); [1] purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, Sr. [1837-1913], New York; bequeathed to his daughter, Juliette [Mrs. William P. Hamilton], New York; sold December 1936 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] See letter from Douglas to Fowles dated 1 May 1941, Duveen Brothers Records, Box 244 (reel 299).

Associated Names

Agnew & Sons, Ltd., Thomas
Douglas, Robert Langton
Grey-Egerton, 10th Bt., Philip de Malpas, Sir
Grey-Egerton, 11th Bt., Philip le Belward, Sir
Grey-Egerton, 12th Bt. of Oulton, Philip Henry Brian, Sir
Grey-Egerton, Maria, Lady
Hamilton, Juliette Pierpont Morgan, Mrs.
Jackson, Thomas Scott
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Morgan, Sr., J. Pierpont

Exhibition History

1857: Art Treasures of the United Kingdom: Paintings by Modern Masters, Art Treasures Palace, Manchester, 1857, no. 77, as Lady Broughton.

1864: Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, French and English Masters, British Institution, London, 1864, no. 97.

1905: Eleventh Annual Exhibition on Behalf of the Artists' General Benevolent Institution, Thos. Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London, 1905, no. 21.

2002: George Romney (1734-1802), Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; National Portrait Gallery, London; The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, 2002, no. 25, repro. (shown only in San Marino).

Technical Summary

The medium-weight canvas is twill woven; it has been lined. The ground is white, smoothly applied and of thin to moderate thickness. The painting is executed smoothly and fluidly, with transparent layers in the darks and low impasto in the highlights. X-radiographs have revealed slight pentimenti; the neckline of the dress has been moved about one inch to the right and is lower than it first was, the folds of the sleeve above the elbow originally followed more the curve of the arm, and the folds in the green drapery to the left of the sleeve were once more broadly curved. The painting was cleaned and restored by Romney in 1795. The painting is in good condition except for heavy retouching in the darks at lower right over fine traction crackle caused by bitumen. The natural resin varnish has discolored yellow moderately.

Bibliography

1904: Ward, Humphry and William Roberts. Romney. 2 vols. London, 1904: 1:105, 106; 2:84.

1907: Roberts, William. Pictures in the Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan at Prince's Gate & Dover House, London: English School. London, 1907: unpaginated.

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 171, no. 94, as Lady Broughton.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 241, repro. 18, as Lady Broughton.

1949: Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 114, repro., as Lady Broughton.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 116, as Lady Broughton.

1966: Henderson [later Jaffé], Patricia. George Romney. Maestri del colore series, no. 250. Milan, 1966: color pls. 10-11.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 103, repro., as Lady Broughton.

1969: Watson, Ross. "British Paintings in the National Gallery of Art." The Connoisseur 172 (1969): 55-56, repro. 55.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 308, repro., as Lady Broughton.

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: no. 510, color repro.

1979: Sutton, Denys. "Robert Langton Douglas. Part III." Apollo 109 (June 1979): 426 [144], fig. 36.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 365, no. 508, color repro., as Lady Broughton.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 354, repro., as Lady Broughton.

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: 230-232, color repro. 231.

2011: Pergam, Elizabeth A. The Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857: Entrepreneurs, Connoisseurs and the Public. Farnham and Burlington, 2011: 313.