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Portrait of George Pitt, First Baron Rivers

1769

Thomas Gainsborough

(British, 1727-1788)

England, 18th century

Oil on canvas

Framed: 261 x 181 x 9 cm (102 3/4 x 71 1/4 x 3 9/16 in.); Unframed: 234.3 x 154.3 cm (92 1/4 x 60 3/4 in.)

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1971.2

Location

203A British Painting and Decorative Arts

Fun Fact

Gainsborough was famous for his portraits, but he especially loved painting landscapes.

Description

Although George Pitt reputedly led a life of debauchery and was a cruel husband, Thomas Gainsborough’s portrait endows him with an aura of dignity and refinement. This work was painted between Pitt’s appointments as ambassador to Turin, Italy, and Madrid, Spain, but he is very much the English gentleman at home on his country estate. Gainsborough balances the deep scarlet and green facing of Pitt’s military uniform with the cool, woodland landscape painted with wide, liquid brushstrokes of mauves, grays, and silvers.

Provenance

1769-1803

George Pitt, First Lord Rivers [1721-1803], Stratfield Saye House, Hampshire, by descent to his grandson, William Horace Pitt-Rivers, 3rd Lord Rivers

1803-1831

William Horace Pitt-Rivers, 3rd Lord Rivers [1777-1831], Rushmore, Dorset, by descent to Horace, 6th Lord Rivers

1831-1880

Horace, 6th Lord Rivers [1814-1880], by descent to his cousin, Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt

1880-1900

Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt [1827-1900], by descent to his grandson George Henry Lane-Fox-Pitt-Rivers ¹

1900-1966

George Henry Lane-Fox-Pitt-Rivers [1890-1966], Hinton St. Mary, Dorset, passed to his common-law wife Stella

1966-1970

Stella Pitt-Rivers, sold to E.V. Thaw ²

1970-1971

(E. V. Thaw, New York, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1971-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Provenance Footnotes

¹Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt was the second son of Marcia Lucy [died 1822], the youngest sister of George, 2nd Lord Rivers.

²Stella was the common-law wife of George Henry Lane-Fox-Pitt-Rivers, and later married M. Robert Maumen

Provenance Citations

Belsey, Hugh. Thomas Gainsborough: The Portraits, Fancy Pictures and Copies After Old Masters. New Haven, CT. Yale University Press, 2019. p. 712-714.

Citations

Brock-Arnold, George M. Gainsborough. London, United Kingdom: S. Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1889. p. 31

Monkhouse, Cosmo. "Thomas Gainsborough." In Dictionary of National Biography. Leslie Stephen, ed., 361-367. New York: Macmillan, 1885. Mentioned: Vol. XX, P. 363

Armstrong, Walter. Gainsborough and His Place in English Art. New York, NY: C. Scribner's Sons, 1898. Reproduced: p. 110-111, vol. I; Mentioned: p. 117, 201, vol. II

Gower, Ronald Sutherland, Lord. Thomas Gainsborough. [with Illustrations.]. London: George Bell & Sons, 1903. Mentioned: P. 53 hdl.handle.net

Armstrong, Walter. Gainsborough and His Place in English Art: With 48 Plates. London: Heinemann, 1904. Mentioned: P. 116, 147, 155, 277 hdl.handle.net

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: p. 191, vol III

Boulton, William Biggs. Thomas Gainsborough: His Life, Work, Friends, and Sitters ... With Forty Illustrations. Methuen & Co: London, 1905. Mentioned: P. 165 hdl.handle.net

Menpes, Mortimer, and James Greig. Gainsborough. London, United Kingdom: A. and C. Black, 1909. Reproduced: p. 79-80

Graves, Algernon. Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813-1912. London, United Kingdom: Graves, 1913. Reproduced: p. 384, vol. I

Whitley, William T. Artists and Their Friends in England, 1700-1799. London, United Kingdom & Boston, MA: Medici Society, 1928. Reproduced: p. 378

Waterhouse, Ellis K. "Preliminary Check List of Portraits by Thomas Gainsborough." The Walpole Society, XXXIII (1948-50). Reproduced: P. 91

Waterhouse, E. K. "The Exhibition 'The First Hundred Years of The Royal Academy'." The Burlington Magazine 94, no. 587 (1952): 48-54. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 51, fig. 17 www.jstor.org

Waterhouse, Ellis Kirkham. Gainsborough. London], United Kingdom: E. Hulton, 1958. Reproduced: p. 21, no. 577, pl. 110

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: cover, p. 257, and details; fig. 1,7,8

Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisition Press Release,” May 12, 1971, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org

Waterhouse, Ellis. “Bath and Gainsborough.” Apollo: The International Magazine of Art & Antiques 98 (November 1973): 360–65. Mentioned: P. 365; reproduced: P. 363, fig. II

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 193 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. 189-191; Reproduced: p. 190

Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Reproduced: p. 124

Sloman, Susan. Gainsborough in Bath. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002. Reproduced: p. 49, fig. 58

Maggio Serra, Rosanna. Vittorio Alfieri: aristocratico ribelle (1749-1803) : [Torino, Archivio di Stato, 5 ottobre 2003-11 gennaio 2004]. Milano, Italy: Electa, 2003. Reproduced: p. 134

Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms & Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007. Reproduced: p. 142

Hamilton, James. Gainsborough: A Portrait. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2017. Mentioned: p. 245

Belsey, Hugh. Thomas Gainsborough: The Portraits, Fancy Pictures and Copies After Old Masters. New Haven : Published for the Paul mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, 2019. Reproduced and mentioned: pp. 1, 4, 12, 278, 548, 712-714, cat. 770

Exhibition history

Royal Academy, London, United Kingdom (1769).

Works by Old Masters (Winter Exhibition).Royal Academy, London, United Kingdom (1881).

The First Hundred Years of the Royal Academy (Winter Exhibition) Royal Academy, London, United Kingdom (1951-1952).

Year in Review: 1971. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (December 28, 1971-February 6, 1972).

Vittorio Alfieri: Aristocratico Ribelle (1749-1803). Turin State Archives, Torino, Italy (October 8, 2003-January 12, 2004).

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

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{{cite web|title=Portrait of George Pitt, First Baron Rivers|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1971.2|author=Thomas Gainsborough|year=1769|access-date=13 July 2020|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Portrait of George Pitt, First Baron Rivers

Portrait of George Pitt, First Baron Rivers

Thomas Gainsborough

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