Yale Center for British Art, Bequest of Mrs. Harry Payne Bingham
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1987.6.2
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
fabrics | textures | robe à la française | ruffle | woman | bracelet | engageantes | jewels | hairpiece | flowers (plants) | lace | silk | portrait
Currently On View:
On view at the Yale University Art Gallery
Exhibition History:
YUAG European Galleries (Yale University Art Gallery, 2023-12-01 - 2025-01-15)In a New Light: Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art (Yale University Art Gallery, 2023-03-24 - 2023-12-03)In Sparkling Company: Glass and Social Life in Britain During the 1700s (Corning Museum of Glass, 2021-05-01 - 2022-01-01)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1998-05-01 - 1998-07-05)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Queensland Art Gallery, 1998-07-15 - 1998-09-06)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of South Australia, 1998-09-16 - 1998-11-15)
Publications:
Accessions and Notes, Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol 18, January 1923, pp. 19, 23, Available online: JSTORSir Walter Armstrong, Gainsborough and his place in English Art, Heinemann, London, 1904, pp. 160, 260, NJ18 G16 A6 (YCBA)Sir Walter Armstrong, Thomas Gainsborough, Portfolio, , Seeley, London, 1894, pp. 23, 84, NJ18.G16 A5 1894 (YCBA)Carrie Rebora Barratt, John Singleton Copley in America, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1995, p. 89, fig. 78, NJ18 C75 J65 1966 + (YCBA)Helen Clifford, Silver in London, the Parker and Wakelin partnership, 1760-1776 , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2004, p. 116, fig. 91, NK7198 P36 C57 2004 (YCBA)Malcolm Cormack, The paintings of Thomas Gainsborough, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York, 1991, pp. 76-77, no. 23, NJ18 G16 C66 1991 (YCBA)Algernon Graves, Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813-1912, 5 v., London, 1913 - 1915, vol. 1, p. 381, N5051 G73 OVERSIZE (YCBA)James Hamilton, Gainsborough A Portrait, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, pl. 38, NJ18.G16 H36 2017 (YCBA)Julia Marciari-Alexander, This other Eden : Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1998, p. 96, no. 34, ND1314.3 Y36 1998 (YCBA)Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v.3, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Reports of the Departments, Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol 27, October 1968, p. 95, Available online: JSTORSusan Sloman, Gainsborough in Bath, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2002, p. 86, NJ18 G16 S56 2002 + (YCBA)Society Gossip, The Yorkshire Herald, and the York Herald, York, England, 17 March 1894, NA, Available online: 19th Century British Library NewspapersEllis Waterhouse, Gainsborough, Spring Books, London, 1966, p. 58, no. 120, NJ18 G16 A12 W28 1966 + OVERSIZE (YCBA)Ellis Waterhouse, Preliminary Check List of Portraits by Thomas Gainsborough, Volume of the Walpole Society, vol. 33, 1948-1950, p.17, N12 W35 A12 + (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
Painted when Thomas Gainsborough was working in Bath, this portrait was most likely commissioned to celebrate the marriage in 1765 of Mary Little of Bathford, Somerset, to Robert Carr, a mercer of Ludgate Hill, London, who assumed the title of Sir Robert Carr, Baronet, in 1777. Gainsborough, whose father was a weaver and whose sisters were milliners, revels here in the depiction of his sitter’s sumptuous attire. His feathery rendering of the various fabrics and textures of the dress is especially fitting, as Mary Little’s new husband was a prosperous fabric merchant, highly dependent in his business dealings upon the demand for new silks, lace, and other profitable trends in Georgian fashion. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2022