Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011032About the Artwork
Although Thomas Gainsborough produced about a thousand portraits in oil, the artist typically worked directly on the canvas rather than making preparatory drawings of his sitters. This study, so closely related to the artist’s finished painting of the famous actress Mrs. Sarah Siddons, is highly unusual. One scholar has hypothesized that because the portrait was not made on commission but conceived for an exhibition in his studio, Gainsborough may have had only a single sitting with the celebrated actress, and knew he would he would have to rely on the drawing as a basis for the finished work.
Provenance
?-?: R. P. Roupell, London 1887: (sale, Christie's, London, July 14, 1887, no. 1331, sold to Thibaudeau) 1887-?: Thibaudeau ?-1917: Henry J. Pfungst, London 1917: (sale, Christie's, London, June 15, 1917, no. 30, sold to Connell) 1917-?: Connell ?-by 1933: Andrew T. Reid, Auchterarder after 1933-?: (Oscar and Peter Johnson Fine Art, London) ?-1976: (Otto Wertheimer Gallery, Paris, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH) 1976-: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Year in Review, 1976. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 1-March 6, 1977). Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 19-March 23, 1980). 18th Century Master Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 6-November 22, 1981). Northern European Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1982-January 9, 1983). National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983). British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art . The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-May 26, 2013).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Thomas Gainsborough (British, 1727–1788)
- Date
- 1785
- Medium
- black chalk with extensive stump work with traces of white gouache
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 46.8 x 35.3 cm (18 7/16 x 13 7/8 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Accession no.
- 1976.6
More by Thomas Gainsborough in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00011032
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