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Portrait of the Ladies Amabel and Mary Jemima Yorke

c. 1761

Joshua Reynolds

(British, 1723-1792)

England, 18th century

Oil on canvas

Framed: 224.5 x 201.3 x 11.4 cm (88 3/8 x 79 1/4 x 4 1/2 in.); Unframed: 196 x 170 cm (77 3/16 x 66 15/16 in.); Former: 223.5 x 198 x 9 cm (88 x 77 15/16 x 3 9/16 in.)

Bequest of John L. Severance 1942.645

Location

203A British Painting and Decorative Arts

Fun Fact

Her family affectionately referred to Mary Jemima (at right) as "Mouse."

Description

Philip Yorke commissioned this portrait of his daughters Amabel (left) and Mary Jemima to hang in their city home in St. James's Square, London. To signal the family's status as land owners, both girls are perhaps portrayed on the grounds of their family's country estate in Bedfordshire, about 55 miles north of London. Captured as if interrupted in a moment of play, this tender, yet impressive portrait of the Yorke girls is a prime example of a painting intended for a private setting, as opposed to the bolder tones and dramatic poses found in paintings intended for public exhibition, such as Thomas Lawrence's full-length portrait of Catherine Gray, Lady Manners.

Video

Visions of Childhood

Symbolism

Provenance

c. 1761-1790

Philip Yorke, Viscount Royston, later Second Earl of Hardwicke [1720-1790], St. James Square, London, by descent to his daughter Amabel Yorke, later Hume-Campbell, 1st Countess de Grey

1790-1833

Amabel Hume-Campbell, 1st Countess de Grey [1751-1833], by descent to her great niece Anne Florence de Grey

1833-1880

Anne Florence de Grey, Baroness Lucas [died 1880], by descent to her son, Francis Thomas de Grey

1880-1905

Francis Thomas de Grey, Seventh Earl Cowper, Seventh Baron Lucas and Tenth Baron Dingwall [1834-1905], by descent to his nephew Auberon Thomas Herbert

1905-1916

Auberon Thomas Herbert, Eighth Baron Lucas and Eleventh Baron Dingwall [1876-1916], by descent to his sister Nan Ino Cooper

1916-1922

Nan Ino Cooper, Ninth Baroness Lucas and Twelfth Baroness Dingwall [1880-1958], consigned to sale at Christie's London

1922

(Christies’s, London, May 26, 1922, lot 78)

(Agnew, London)

(M. Knoedler & Co., New York)

John L. Severance, Cleveland, OH, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art

1942-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Cotton, W., and John Burnet. Sir Joshua Reynolds and His Works. London, 1856. Mentioned: P. 36

Cook, Clarence. Art and Artists of Our Time. New York, NY: Selmar Hess, 1888. Reproduced: p. 37; Mentioned: p. 37-38

Graves, Algernon, and William Vine Cronin. A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds. [With Plates.]. London: H. Graves & Co, 1899. Mentioned: P. 1084

Armstrong, Walter. Sir Joshua Reynolds, First President of the Royal Academy. London, United Kingdom: W. Heinemann, 1900.

Bryan, Michael, and George Charles Williamson. Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers. New York, NY: Macmillan, 1903. Reproduced: p. 219

Baldry, A. L. Sir Joshua Reynolds. London: George Newnes, 1905. Mentioned: P. xxxii

Graves, Algernon. Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813-1912. London, United Kingdom: Graves, 1913. Mentioned: pgs. 1020, 1041, 1054, 1085, 1091, vol. 3

"American Art News, Vol. 20, No. 31." American Art News 20, no. 31 (May 13, 1922): 1-10. Reproduced: P. 4 www.jstor.org

Marillier, H. C. "Christie's" 1766 to 1925. London: Constable & Company, Ltd, 1926. Mentioned: P. 196

Toynbee, Paget. "Horace Walpole's Journals of Visits to Country Seats, etc." The Walpole Society, XVI (1927--28) Reproduced: p. 40

Waterhouse, Ellis Kirkham. Reynolds. London, United Kingdom: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co, 1941. Mentioned: p. 117; Reproduced: p. 121, pl. 70

Catalogue of the John L. Severance Collection: Bequest of John L. Severance, 1936. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1942. Reproduced: p. [18], Plate VI, cat. no. 14; Mentioned: p. 22, cat. no. 14 archive.org

Francis, Henry S. "Bequest of John L. Severance, 1936." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art XXIX, no. 9 (November, 1942):131-136. Reproduced: p. 133; Mentioned: p. 136

Richard, Edgar P. "Recent Acquisitions: Ladies Amabel and Mary Jemima Yorke, by Reynolds." The Art Quarterly VI, no. 2 (Spring 1943): 146-149. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 146-149

Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945. Reproduced: p. 18 archive.org

Flexner, James Thomas. John Singleton Copley. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co, 1948. Mentioned: p. 32, 132; Reproduced: pl. 3

Talbot, William S. "Thomas Gainsborough: George Pitt, First Lord Rivers." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LVIII, no. 11 (November, 1971): 258-268. Reproduced: p. 259, fig. 2

Coe, Nancy. The History of the Collecting of European Paintings and Drawings in the City of Cleveland. 1955. Mentioned: p. 234-235, vol. II; Reproduced: no. 14, XLVII

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 469 archive.org

Milliken, William Mathewson. The Cleveland Museum of Art. New York, NY: H.N. Abrams, 1958. Reproduced: p. 47

Argan, Giulio Carlo. "Reynolds." In Encyclopedia of World Art. Bernard S. Myers, ed., 202-207. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959. Mentioned: P. 206

Gimpel, René. Journal d'un collectionneur, marchand de tableaux. [Paris]: Calmann-Lévy, 1963. Mentioned: P. 236

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 154 archive.org

Cleveland Museum of Art. Selected Works: Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967. Reproduced: no. 194

Cormack, Malcolm, "The Ledgers of Sir Joshua Reynolds." The Walpole Society, XLII (1968-70) Reproduced: p. 121

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 154 archive.org

Waterhouse, Ellis Kirkham. Reynolds. New York, NY: Phaidon; [distributed by Praeger], 1973. Reproduced: pl. 26

Hamilton, Edward. The Engraved Works, of Sir Joshua Reynolds; A Catalogue Raisonné of the Engravings Made After His Paintings from 1755-1822, with Descriptions of the States of Each Plate, Biographical Sketches of the Persons Represented, a List of Pictures Which Have Been Engraved, Names of the Possessors, and Other Particulars. Amsterdam, Netherlands: G.W. Hissink, 1973. Reproduced: p. 139

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 192 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. 210-212; Reproduced: p. 211

Flexner, James Thomas. John Singleton Copley. New York, NY: Fordham University Press, 1993. Pl. 11

Kirsh, Andrea, and Rustin S. Levenson. Seeing Through Paintings: Physical Examination in Art Historical Studies. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000. Reproduced: p. 167, no. 174

Exhibition history

British Institution, London, United Kingdom (1813).

Suffolk Street, London, United Kingdom (1833).

Family Portraits,Royal Academy, Burlington House, London, United Kingdom (1875).

Old Masters Exhibition, Grafton Gallery, London, United Kingdom (1895).

Second National Exhibition, Woman and Child in Art, London, United Kingdom (1913-1914).

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Museum of Art (1936).

The Venetian Tradition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (November 8, 1956-January 1, 1957).

Style, Truth and the Portrait. The Cleveland Museum of Art (October 2-November 19, 1963).

CMA @ Oberlin (second rotation). Allen Memorial Art Museum (April 3-June 5, 2006).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Portrait of the Ladies Amabel and Mary Jemima Yorke|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1942.645|author=Joshua Reynolds|year=c. 1761|access-date=15 September 2019|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Portrait of the Ladies Amabel and Mary Jemima Yorke

Portrait of the Ladies Amabel and Mary Jemima Yorke

Joshua Reynolds

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