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View: In frame
Anne Vansittart, Lady Palk
Sir Joshua Reynolds (English, 1723–1792)
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
76.8 x 65.1 cm (30 1/4 x 25 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Henry Lillie Pierce Fund
Accession Number95.178
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Provenance1761, Robert Palk, 1st Bt. (b. 1717 - d. 1798) and his wife (the sitter), Anne Vansittart Palk (b. 1737 - d. 1788), Haldon House, Devon, England [see note 1]; by inheritance through the family to Edward Arthur Palk (b. 1854 - d. 1939), Little Testwood, Totton, Hampshire [see note 2]; by 1895, probably sold by Palk to Lawrie and Co., London; 1895, sold by Lawrie to Arthur Tooth and Sons, London and New York [see note 3]; 1895, sold by Arthur Tooth and Sons to the MFA for $5000. (Accession Date: March 1, 1895)
NOTES:
[1] On the commission, see David Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds: Complete Catalogue of His Paintings (New Haven and London, 2000), cat. no. 1380. The portrait was begun before their marriage (when the sitter was recorded as Miss Vansittart) and was completed afterward (when she was recorded as Mrs. Palk).
[2] According to Ellis K. Waterhouse in a letter to W. G. Constable of the MFA (October 12, 1938), the art collection at Haldon was broken up around 1891, and the portraits were divided up among family members. When the painting was published by Algernon Graves and William Vine Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, vol. 2 (London, 1899), p. 720, it was said to belong to Edward Arthur Palk.
[3] According to a letter from Arthur Tooth and Sons to the MFA (July 15, 1937), the London branch of the gallery acquired the painting from Lawrie and Co., and shipped it to New York for sale.
NOTES:
[1] On the commission, see David Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds: Complete Catalogue of His Paintings (New Haven and London, 2000), cat. no. 1380. The portrait was begun before their marriage (when the sitter was recorded as Miss Vansittart) and was completed afterward (when she was recorded as Mrs. Palk).
[2] According to Ellis K. Waterhouse in a letter to W. G. Constable of the MFA (October 12, 1938), the art collection at Haldon was broken up around 1891, and the portraits were divided up among family members. When the painting was published by Algernon Graves and William Vine Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, vol. 2 (London, 1899), p. 720, it was said to belong to Edward Arthur Palk.
[3] According to a letter from Arthur Tooth and Sons to the MFA (July 15, 1937), the London branch of the gallery acquired the painting from Lawrie and Co., and shipped it to New York for sale.