Miss Nelly O'Brien, early to mid nineteenth century

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

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

framed: 99.7 x 87 x 7.6 cm (39 1/4 x 34 1/4 x 3 in.)

Credit Line

Widener Collection

Accession Number

1942.9.76

Artists / Makers

Anonymous Artist (painter)

Sir Joshua Reynolds (artist after) British, 1723 - 1792

Image Use

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Provenance

William Angerstein [b. 1811], Woodlands, Blackheath, Kent [England] (anon. [Angerstein] sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 20 June 1874, no. 109), bought by (Henry Graves & Co.), London. William Stuart Stirling-Crawfurd [d. 1883], Milton, Lanark; bequeathed to his wife, the Hon. Caroline Agnes [c. 1816-1894], previously Duchess of Montrose (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 4 May 1895, no. 84), bought by McLean,[1] who sold it to (Shepherd Brothers), London. (Avery), from whom it was purchased 1895 by P.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, 1942.

[1] Probably Thomas McLean, London, the dealer, who dissolved his partnership in 1902, and sold his stock at Christie's, 15 November 1902 and 21 November 1903.

Associated Names

Angerstein, William
Avery
Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.
Henry Graves & Co.
McLean, Thomas
Montrose, The Hon. Caroline Agnes, Duchess of
Shepherd Brothers, Messrs.
Stirling-Crawfurd, William Stuart
Widener, Joseph E.
Widener, Peter Arrell Brown

Technical Summary

The medium-weight canvas is plain woven; it has been lined. The ground is white, of moderate thickness. The painting is broadly executed in thick, opaque layers; the paint is blended wet into wet in the flesh tones, but more loosely and sketchily applied over dried underlayers elsewhere; the texture of the paint is not descriptive of the material depicted and the brushwork is generalized. The picture is abraded overall, apparently by overcleaning, and there is extensive retouching, notably in the flesh tones; the background darks are extensively reglazed. The thick, pigmented natural resin varnish has discolored yellow to a significant degree.

Bibliography

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., as by Sir joshua Reynolds.

1923: Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro., as by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

1931: Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 28, repro., as by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

1942: Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 6, as by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 350, 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: 224-225, repro. 225.