Lot 250: HENRY ROBERT MORLAND

THE LAUNDRY MAID
[ENGRAVED: PHILIP DAWE (SEE. J.C. SMITH, BRITISH MEZZOTINTO PORTRAITS, 1884, VOL. I, P. 158, NO. 22). ]

29 1/4 by 24 1/2 in.; 74.3 by 62.2 cm.

oil on canvas

Baltimore, The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Age of Elegance: The Rococo and Its Effects, April 25, 1959-June 14, 1959, no. 351.

J. Hassell, Memoirs of the Life of the late George Morland, London 1806, p. 191 (as a joint effort between Morland and his son, George);
The Magazine of Art, March 1898, pp. 284-5, reproduced;
W. Roberts, "Mr J. Pierpont Morgan's Pictures", in Connoisseur, vol. XVII, 1907, pp. 220-1, reproduced;
A. Graves, A Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813-1912, vol. V, London 1915, p. 2272;
M. Bryan, Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, vol. III, London 1927, p. 371;
H. Vollmer (ed.), Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Kunstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig 1931, vol. XXV, p. 159 (as Attributed to George Morland);
P. Wescher and E. Feinblatt, Los Angeles County Museum, Catalogue of Paintings I: Catalogue of Flemish, German, Dutch and English Paintings, XV-XVIII Century, Los Angeles 1954, p. 80, cat. no. 87, reproduced;
"Paintings in Los Angeles", in Connoisseur, May 1955, p. 216;
G. Boas and J. Breckenridge, The Age of Elegance: The Rococo and Its Effects, exhibition catalogue, Baltimore 1959, p.77, no. 351;
S. Schaefer, et al., European Painting and Sculpture in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles 1987, p. 73, reproduced.

Possibly Charles Chatfield, London;
Possibly his sale, London, Peter Coxe, May 5, 1807, lot 46 (as finished by his son George Morland, bought in);
Abraham Henry Chambers (d.1854), London, and by descent to 'Mrs. Oppenheim';
Her sale, London, Christie's, December 4, 1897, lot 119, to Wertheimer (as 'Portrait of the Countess of Coventry');
Charles J. Wertheimer, London, 1897-1899;
J. Pierpont Morgan, New York, before 1907;
By descent to his daughter, Juliet Morgan Hamilton, New York;
With French and Co., New York, by 1934;
William Randolph Hearst, 1934, by whom given to Marion Davies, Los Angeles;
Gift of Marion Davies to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1946 (acc. no. 46.47.3).

This is generally considered the prime version of a painting known in at least six other versions, all of which however depict a different model wearing a different headress and chemise. (1) Each version was probably originally conceived with a pendant showing a Washerwoman and such a pair was exhibited at South Kensington in 1867, lent by the Earl of Mansfield. (2) The sitter here, and in other versions, has been traditionally recognised as Maria Gunning, Countess of Coventry, but there is no substance to support this. (3)

The painting has been identified, with no real certainty, with one of a group of pictures that comprised the so-called 'Morland Gallery' belonging to Charles Chatfield in the first decade of the 19th century. At this time the painting was described (by Hassel; see Literature) as having been a collaborative work between Morland and his son George, a point of debate throughout the ensuing centuries. If the date of 1774 on a related drawing is to be believed, however, this is most unlikely given Geroge's birth date of 1763. (4)

1. One, for example, is in the Tate Gallery, London.
2. Another Washerwoman was formerly in the collection of the Earl of Halifax and sold London, Christie's, June 19, 1970, lot 52.
3. The Mansfield pictures were identified as portraits of Maria and Elizabeth Gunning.
4. The drawing is in fact probably a copy after the present work. It was formerly in the collection of Frederick Herman of Norfolk, Virginia (please see the department for a reproduction).