The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 17, 2024

Portrait of Catherine Grey, Lady Manners

Portrait of Catherine Grey, Lady Manners

1794
(British, 1769–1830)
England, 18th century
oil on canvas
Framed: 280.5 x 185 x 9 cm (110 7/16 x 72 13/16 x 3 9/16 in.); Unframed: 255.3 x 158 cm (100 1/2 x 62 3/16 in.)
Bequest of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 1961.220
Location: 203A British Painting and Decorative Arts

Did You Know?

Catherine was an Irish poet who wrote of longing to escape the fashionable world.

Description

The Irish poet Lady Manners rejected as “unflattering” this portrait representing her as the goddess Juno, symbolized here by the peacock. Thomas Lawrence exhibited the painting at the Royal Academy in 1794 with the label “to be disposed of [sold],” but it was still in the artist’s collection when he died. Though it offended Lady Manners, the painting displays all the hallmarks of Lawrence’s flamboyant style:dazzling, fluid brushwork and an innovative use of unconventional colors that helped secure his role as the most fashionable portrait painter in turn-of-the-century Britain.
  • 1794-1830
    property of the artist, Sir Thomas Lawrence [1769-1830]
    1831
    (Christie's, London Sir Thomas Lawrence sale, June 18, 1831, no. 147, purchased by Samuel Woodburn)
    1831-?
    Samuel Woodburn; sold to Frederick John Fifth Baron Monson
    ?-1888
    Frederick John, Fifth Baron Monson [died 1841], and his heirs, Gatton Park, Surrey; sold at Christie's, London
    (Christie's, London, May 12, 1888, no. 21, sold to Davis)
    1888
    Davis
    1888-?
    William, Fifth Earl of Carysfort
    Lady Carysfort; by descent to her nephew Douglas James Proby
    Colonel Douglas James Proby, Elton Hall, Huntingdonshire
    1919-?
    (Duveen Brothers)
    1924-?
    Jules S. Bach, New York
    ?-1960
    John D. Rockefeller, Jr. [1874-1960]; by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1961-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 correspondence among the Monson papers now deposited in the Lincoln County archives
  • Williams, John. Memoirs of the Royal Academicians; Being an Attempt to Improve the National Taste. [London]: H.D. Symonds, P. M'Queen, and T. Bellamy, 1796. Mentioned:P. 28, no. 173 hdl.handle.net
    Redford, George. Art Sales. A History of Sales of Pictures and Other Works of Art. With Notices of the Collections Sold, Names of Owners, Titles of Pictures, Prices and Purchasers, Arranged Under the Artists of the Different Schools in Order of Date. Including the Purchases and Prices of Pictures for the National Gallery. London, United Kindgom: Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., Printers, the "Whitefriars" Press, 1888. Reproduced: p. 454, vol. I
    Gower, Ronald Sutherland, and Algernon Graves. Sir Thomas Lawrence, With a Catalogue of the Artist's Exhibited and Engraved Works. London, United Kingdom: Goupil, J. Boussod, Manzi, Joyant, successors, 1900. Reproduced: p. 454
    Graves, Algernon. The Royal Academy of Arts; A Complete Dictionary of Contributors and Their Work from Its Foundation in 1769 to 1904. London, United Kingdom: H. Graves and Co, 1905. Reproduced: vol. 3
    Armstrong, Walter. Lawrence. New York,, NY: C. Scribner's, 1913. Mentioned: p. 129; Reproduced: p. 150, pl. XIV
    Graves, Algernon. Art Sales from Early in the Eighteenth Century to Early in the Twentieth Century (Mostly Old Master and Early English Pictures). London: A. Graves, 1918. Mentioned: Vol. II, P. 128
    Farington, Joseph, and James Greig. The Farington Diary. London, United Kingdom: Hutchinson, 1922. Mentioned: p. 44
    Proby, Douglas James, Tancred Borenius, James Vaughan Hodgson, and Granville Proby. A Catalogue of the Pictures at Elton Hall in Huntingdonshire, in the Possession of Colonel Douglas James Proby. London, United Kingdom: Medici Society, 1924. Reproduced: p. 117
    Garlick, Kenneth. Sir Thomas Lawrence. London, United Kingdom : Routledge & Paul,1954. Reproduced: p. 88, pl. 32
    Saarinen, Aline B. The Proud Possessors: The Lives, Times, and Tastes of Some Adventurous American Art Collectors. New York, NY: Random House, 1958. Reproduced: p. 349
    Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisition Press Release,” October 11, 1961, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art, “The Portrait of the Countess of Dysart as Juno,” October 26, 1961, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    Garlick, Kenneth. "A Catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings, and Pastels of Sir Thomas Lawrence." The Walpole Society, XXXIX (1962-64) Reproduced: p. 138
    “Lady Louisa Manners, Later Countess of Dysart, as Juno.” Gazette Des Beaux Arts, February 1962, sup36. Reproduced: P. 36
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 160 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 160 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 195 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Mentioned: p. 200; Reproduced: p. 201
    "1992 Annual Report." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 6 (1993): 215-95. Mentioned: p. 247 www.jstor.org
    Uerlings, Herbert, Karl Hölz, and Viktoria Schmidt-Linsenhoff. Das Subjekt und die Anderen: Interkulturalität und Geschlechterdifferenz vom 18. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart. Berlin, Germany: Erich Schmidt, 2001. Reproduced: p. 116, fig. 6
    Rosenthal, Angela. 2004. “Visceral Culture: Blushing and the Legibility of Whiteness in Eighteenth-Century British Portraiture.” Art History 27 (4): 563–92. Mentioned: P. 576-578; reproduced: P. 577
    Badea-Păun, Gabriel. The Society Portrait: From David to Warhol. New York, NY: Vendome Press, 2007. Mentioned: p. 56-58
    Bindman, David, Tim Ayers, and Chris Stephens. The History of British Art. New Haven, CT: Yale Center for British Art, 2008. Reproduced: p. 108, fig. 61
    Palmer, Caroline. "Brazen Cheek: Face-Painters in Late Eighteenth-Century England." Oxford Art Journal 31, no. 2 (2008): 197-213. Mentioned: P. 209; reproduced: P. 211 www.jstor.org
    Albinson, A. Cassandra, Peter Funnell, and Lucy Peltz. Thomas Lawrence: Regency Power & Brilliance. New Haven, CT: Yale Center for British Art, 2010. Mentioned: p. 118-119
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 194-195
    Montgomery, Janelle. "Every Picture Tells a Story: A Family Chronicle in George Romney's Lady Mary Every." Transactions of the Romney Society 21, (2016).
     Mentioned: p. 4-11; Reproduced: p. 9, fig. 5
    Day, C.A., et. al. "Thomas Lawrence's Consumptive Chic: Reinterpretting Lady Manners Hectic Flush in 1794." Eighteenth-Century Studies 49, no. 4 (Summer 2016). Mentioned: 455-474; Reproduced: p. 456, fig. 1
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 correspondence among the Monson papers now deposited in the Lincoln County archives
  • British Gallery Reinstallation (June 2020). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).
    Thomas Lawrence: Regency, Power & Brilliance. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT (organizer) (February 24-June 5, 2011).
    Masterpieces of European Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, Beachwood, OH (March 29-July 8, 2007).
    The Swagger Portrait. Tate, London SW1P 4RG (organizer) (October 14, 1992-January 10, 1993).
    Portraiture: The Image of the Individual. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 22, 1983-January 22, 1984).
    Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 11-October 10, 1965).
    Style, Truth and the Portrait. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 1-November 19, 1963).
    Year in Review (1961). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 1-26, 1961).
    Woman and Child in Art. National Gallery, London, United Kingdom (1913-1914).
    Royal Academy, London, United Kingdom (1794).
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 correspondence among the Monson papers now deposited in the Lincoln County archives
  • {{cite web|title=Portrait of Catherine Grey, Lady Manners|url=false|author=Thomas Lawrence|year=1794|access-date=17 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 correspondence among the Monson papers now deposited in the Lincoln County archives

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1961.220