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Lot Essay
The sitter was the third daughter and co-heiress of Francis Otway of Riverhill and Ashgrove, near Sevenoaks, Kent. She married on 15 June 1775 Robert Mayne, M.P, (1724-1782) of Gatton Park, Surrey, son of William Mayne of Powis Logie, Clackmannan, by his second wife, Helen daughter of William Galbraith of Balgair, Stirling. Robert Mayne was primarily a banker with offices in Jermyn Street, his firm first appearing in the trade directories in 1770 as 'Mayne and Needham'. He was also an important government contractor who obtained contracts to victual British troops in America and the West Indies in the 1770's and 1780's. He was a Member of Parliament for Gatton between December 1774 and August 1782. In 1782 his firm went bankrupt which led to his suicide the same year.
His portrait dates from circa 1776. It does not seem to have been delivered to the sitter and was included in the artist's posthumous sale in 1796. A small portrait of the sitter's husband, likewise dating from circa 1776, was also in the artist's studio sale, as lot 1 (see E.K. Waterhouse, Reynolds, London, 1941, p.67). Like the present picture it was also acquired by Colonel William Mayne and subsequently sold by his widow to Henry Blair Mayne. At this point all the provenances of the two pictures diverge as the portrait of Robert Mayne was then sold to Agnew's from whom it was acquired by Sir Charles Tennant, Bt.
His portrait dates from circa 1776. It does not seem to have been delivered to the sitter and was included in the artist's posthumous sale in 1796. A small portrait of the sitter's husband, likewise dating from circa 1776, was also in the artist's studio sale, as lot 1 (see E.K. Waterhouse, Reynolds, London, 1941, p.67). Like the present picture it was also acquired by Colonel William Mayne and subsequently sold by his widow to Henry Blair Mayne. At this point all the provenances of the two pictures diverge as the portrait of Robert Mayne was then sold to Agnew's from whom it was acquired by Sir Charles Tennant, Bt.