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Portrait of Miss Mary Hartley

Maker

(artist)
1769-1830

Title

Date of Production

1780 - 1786

Medium

pastel on parchment, cut into an oval

Dimensions

Height: 32.1 cm
Width: 26.7 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.3245

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

Lawrence achieved early fame as a portrait painter, working both in oil and pastel, a medium which enabled him to achieve a likeness more quickly and therefore attract clients unwilling to pay for an oil painting. Pastel has a particular appeal of its own, the lack of an oil binding medium giving the completed work a uniquely velvety finish. Although paper was the more commonly used support, velum was also suitable in that it could be roughened to help retain the pigment. Nonetheless pastels remained vulnerable: a label once attached to the original frame (now lost) survives, and bears the warning 'To be kept from the Damp, & Sun. TLawrence Pinxt.'

Provenance

David Hartley (1732-1813); given by him to Mrs Sarah Jervas [according to inscription on the former backing sheet, though the name is no longer legible] Leggatt Bros (London); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), n.d.; Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Material Evidence, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 30/10/1998-24/01/1999

Old Master Drawings from the Witt Collection, Auckland City Art Gallery, 01/09/1960-01/10/1960

Literature

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 31

Old Master Drawings from the Witt Collection, Auckland City Art Gallery, 1960
cat. no. 14

Garlick, Kenneth, Walpole Society, 1963-64 ...More

Powell, Cecilia and Stephen Hebron, A Cumbrian Artist Rediscovered: John Smith (1749-1831), Grasmere: Wordsworth Trust, 2011
pp. 19-20
fig. 9 on p. 20 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: n/a.

Inscription: Recto: lower left edge of oval, black pastel, signed: "T.Lawrence Pinxt.". [For two inscriptions taken from the backboard on the original oval frame, see D.1952.RW.3245.1.].

Collector's mark: none.

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