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Portrait of Two Girls (Misses Cumberland)
George Romney (English, 1734–1802)
English
about 1772–73
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
73.7 x 63.5 cm (29 x 25 in.)
Credit Line
Robert Dawson Evans Collection
Accession Number17.3259
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Richard Cumberland was one of the best-known writers of the day and friend to leading painters, poets, and actors. Here, his daughters, Elizabeth and Sophia, read his latest play, The Fashionable Lover. Romney constructs an affectionate and subtle narrative with the sisters’ differing responses. Elizabeth is on the cusp of adolescence and dressed in an “adult” gown: her dreamy stare suggests that the theme of fashionable love has sparked her imagination. Sophia, slim and childish in a green smock, struggles to understand the meaning of her father’s words.
ProvenanceAbout 1772/1773, commissioned by the father of the sitters, Richard Cumberland (b. 1732 - d. 1811) Cambridge, England [see note 1]; by inheritance to his daughter, Sophia Cumberland (Mrs. William) Badcock (b. 1761 - d. 1823); by descent to her grandson, Rev. William R. Brodrick (b. 1815 - d. 1897), Peasmarsh, Sussex; March 19, 1892, Brodrick sale, Christie's, London, lot 724, unsold and passed by descent to his son, Francis Hammond Brodrick (b. 1867 - d. 1955), Battle, Sussex [see note 2]; June 14, 1902, anonymous (probably Brodrick) sale, Christie's, London, lot 91, to Thos. Agnew and Sons, London (stock no. 518); June 16, 1902, sold by Agnew to Blakeslee Galleries, New York [see note 3]; sold by Blakeslee to Robert Dawson Evans (b. 1843 - d. 1909) and his wife, Maria Antoinette Hunt Evans (b. 1845 - d. 1917), Boston; 1917, bequest of Mrs. Robert Dawson Evans to the MFA. (Accession Date: November 1, 1917)
NOTES:
[1] Elizabeth (b. 1759/60 - d. 1837), holding her father's 1772 play, The Fashionable Lover, was later Lady Edward Cavendish-Bentinck, and Sophia was Mrs. Badcock and then Mrs. Reese.
[2] F. H. Brodrick lent the painting to the Exhibition of a Special Selection from the Works by George Romney (Grafton Galley, London, 1900), cat. 96.
[3] Agnew picture stock book, National Gallery, London, NGA27/1/1/9 (1898-1904).
NOTES:
[1] Elizabeth (b. 1759/60 - d. 1837), holding her father's 1772 play, The Fashionable Lover, was later Lady Edward Cavendish-Bentinck, and Sophia was Mrs. Badcock and then Mrs. Reese.
[2] F. H. Brodrick lent the painting to the Exhibition of a Special Selection from the Works by George Romney (Grafton Galley, London, 1900), cat. 96.
[3] Agnew picture stock book, National Gallery, London, NGA27/1/1/9 (1898-1904).