Portrait of a Woman

Sir Joshua Reynolds (English, 1723–1792)

Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas mounted on composition board

Dimensions76.5 x 63.5 cm (30 1/8 x 25 in.)

Credit LineBequest of Walter J. Noonan

Accession number54.1412

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

ProvenancePossibly 1806, purchased in London by Barney Smith (b. 1763), [see note 1]; 1917, by descent through the family to Robert Wheaton Rivers, Santa Barbara, CA [see note 2]; After 1940, sold by Robert Wheaton Rivers to Vose Galleries, Boston (stock no. 12554); 1943, sold by Vose Galleries to Walter J. Noonan, Boston, MA; 1954, bequest of Noonan to the MFA. (Accession date: December 18, 1954).

NOTES:
[1] According to inscription on back of painting: "This picture was bought in London by Barney Smith Esq., before 1813, prob. 1806. It was relined under the case of Doll and Richards in 1876." In 1813, Smith purchased Milton Hall, the estate of Gov. Thomas Hutchinson, where the painting hung until 1917.
[2] Rivers is the great -great -grandson of Barney Smith. He provides the history of the painting in a document dated April 15, 1940 in the file. He refers to the portrait as the "Hon. Mrs. Fenwick."