Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Study for Portrait of Miss Lloyd

Thomas Gainsborough
1727-1788

Study for Portrait of Miss Lloyd

late 1740s
7 7/16 x 5 7/8 inches (189 x 149 mm)
Graphite on laid paper.
III, 46a

Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.

Notes
One of three preparatory studies (III, 46a-c) connected with a portrait of an unidentified girl, traditionally called Miss Lloyd, now in the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth.
On one mat.
Probably drawn in preparation for the Portrait of a Lady (Miss Lloyd) at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, these three small sketches (III, 46a-c) are typical of Gainsborough's earliest attempts in the genre of portraiture, in which the artist nonetheless took the opportunity to advertise his skills as a landscapist. While the silhouette of the sitter is only barely delineated, the natural setting is carefully described. -- Exhibition Label, from "Thomas Gainsborough: Experiments in Drawings."
Inscriptions/Markings
Watermark: Letters "GR", fragment, missing crown which is seen on III, 46b.
Associated names
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Bibliography
Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, III, 46a; III, 46b; III, 46c.
Wiles, Stephanie. To Observe and Imagine : British Drawings, 1600-1900. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1998, no. 30.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department