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Study for the group portrait of the Beaumont family (recto)

Maker

(artist)
1734-1802

Title

Study for the group portrait of the Beaumont family (recto)

Date of Production

(circa) 1777 - 1779

Medium

graphite, pen and brown ink and brown wash (recto), graphite (verso), on laid paper

Dimensions

Height: 30.9 cm
Width: 39.1 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.3879

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

This is a study for Romney's portrait of the Beaumont family, now in Tate Britain, a commission he accepted in 1777. In it appear the three sons of Richard Beaumont of Whitley Beaumont, Huddersfield, together with his daughter and her husband. Her pose (altered in the painting) is one he was using at the time to symbolize melancholia, and it may have been the artist's intention to show the family contemplating a portrait of their recently deceased brother. The bold washes of brown ink are characteristic of Romney's drawing style.

Provenance

Randall Davies (1866-1946), by July 1941; his sale, Sotheby's (London), 10 - 12 February 1947, lot 302; purchased there via Colnaghi (London) by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), L.2228b (£48); Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

The Witt Collection - Four centuries of drawings, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 03/04/2004-20/06/2004

George Romney, National Portrait Gallery, London, 30/05/2002-18/08/2002

George Romney, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, England, 08/02/2002-21/04/2002; National Portrait Gallery, London, 30/05/2002-18/08/2002; Huntington Museum and Art Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA, 15/09/2002-01/12/2002 ...More

George Romney, Walker Art Gallery & Liverpool & England, 07/02/2002-28/04/2002

Neo-Classical Drawings, The Courtauld Gallery, London, November 1972-December 1972

An exhibition of English drawings and water colors from British collections, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 16/04/1962-03/06/1962

An exhibition of English drawings and water colors from British collections, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 18/02/1962-01/04/1962

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

Drawings from the Witt Collection, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 1958-59 ...Less

Literature

Petherbridge, Deanna, 'Wild Humours versus Graphic Inventions: The drawings of Romney and Gainsborough', Transactions of the Romney Society 19, 2014
p. 13

Walker Art Gallery; National Portrait Gallery; Huntington Library, 2002, George Romney, 1734-1802, London
no. 84
ill.

An exhibition of English drawings and water colors from British collections, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1962
cat. no. 63 ...More

Old Master Drawings from the Witt Collection, Auckland City Art Gallery, 1960
cat. no. 15b

Drawings from the Witt Collection, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, 1958 - 1959
cat. no. 12

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 41

Sewter, A.C., 'Romney's Sketches for the Beaumont Family' in 'Burlington Magazine', July 1941 - 12-13, 16-17; 79, no. 460
p. 12
Pl. I, fig. B (verso), fig. C (recto)
see attached PDF

Alex Kidson, George Romney: A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings (Yale University Press: New Haven & London, 2015)
p. 57
no. 73
Entry for finished Beaumont Family portrait ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Label: Detached from old mount, now kept separately from file (mount also annotated thus), handwritten in pencil: "4383 / George Romney / 1734-1802 / The Beaumont Family / See same subject T.O / in pencil on reverse / UX".

Inscription: none.

Collector's mark: Recto: lower left corner, stamped in black: Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b).

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