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Elizabeth Campbell (née Gunning), Duchess of Hamilton & Brandon and Duchess of Argyll (c. 1733-1790)

Maker

Catherine Read (artist)
1723-1779

Title

Date of Production

1700 - 1799

Medium

graphite on laid paper with some brown ink pen trials at upper right; verso right edge has black chalk preparation corresponding to outline on recto, so sheet perhaps used in a transfer process (though no incised lines on recto)

Dimensions

Height: 27 cm
Width: 15.5 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.3993

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 preparatory drawing for an oval portrait in pastels. Like many drawing media, pastel was often considered more suitable for women artists than oil paint. Such attitudes considerably limited the practice of many women artists such as Catherine Read; as her mentor, the Abbe Grant, wrote to her brother in 1752: 'Was it not for the restrictions her sex obliges her to be under I dare safely say she would shine wonderfully in history painting too, but as it is impossible for her to attend public academies or even design or draw from nature, she is determined to confine herself to portraits.'

Notes

This is a study for an oval portrait in pastels (location unknown?). See several paintings after the finished portrait in the National Trust Collections and a mezzotint in the British Museum published in 1770 (1867,1012.602).

Provenance

Edward Speelman (London); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), L.2228b, n.d.; Witt Bequest 1952

Literature

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 39

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Verso: centre, brown ink: "No 114"; lower right, graphite: "x".

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

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