Old Masters

Provenance:

By descent from the sitter to her daughter Isabelle, Lady Cooper (1769 – 1855), wife of Rev. Sir William Henry Cooper, 4^th Bt., and by descent to her daughter

Elizabeth, wife of Rev. Edward H. Dawkins, and by descent to her son

Edward H.F. Dawkins (1837 – 1912);

His sale [‘A Different Property’]; Christie’s, London, 9 June 1888, lot 345 (as ‘Sir J. Reynolds’, unsold; the Reynolds portrait of [Priscilla] Mrs. Joseph Franks, of whom his mother was sole heir, also unsold, was lot 344).

Returned to Edward Dawkins and consigned by him on 23 May 1901, together with the Reynolds portraits of Moses Franks and Priscilla, Mrs. Joseph Franks, to

Thos. Agnew & Son, London (stock no. 9903), by whom sold, together with the other Franks portraits, on the same day to

Lawrie & Co., 15 Old Bond St., London.

Anon. sale; Christie’s, New York, NY, 9 June 1978, lot 63 (as ‘Sir Joshua Reynolds, PRA’, $9,350).

Private Collection, United States (acquired at the above sale).

 

Literature:

A. Graves & W.V. Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, London, 1899, vol. I, p. 338 (conflating the present work, unsold in 1888, and the copy sold in 1895 which by 1899 was in the collection of M.T. Martin; this copy is probably the work illustrated in vol. II, p. 512).

Thos. Agnew & Sons., Picture Stockbook no. 4 [1898 – 1904], pp. 184-85, no. 9903 (https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/research/research-centre/agnews-stock-books/reference-nga27119-1898-1904; accessed 24 March 2023)

E.K. Waterhouse, Reynolds, London, 1941, p. 57 (mistakenly referencing the copy sold in 1928).

D. Mannings & M. Postle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, A complete catalogue of his paintings, New Haven, CT & London, 2000, vol. I, p. 206, no. 687 (listed as in the Charles P. Russell Collection at the Deerfield Academy, MA, with provenance conflated with the copy held there; the copy illus. p. 206, fig. 876).