Portrait of an officer, identified as Sir Robert Fletcher, half-length, in uniform

Details

Attributed to Sir Joshua Reynolds (Plympton 1723-1792 London)
Portrait of an officer, identified as Sir Robert Fletcher, half-length, in uniform
oil on canvas, in a painted oval
30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm.)

Provenance

(Possibly) Sir John Milburn; Christie's, London, 10 June 1909, lot 117, to Colnaghi.
(Possibly) with Knoedler & Co., New York.
(Possibly) with Hirschl & Adler, from whom purchased by the Columbus Museum of Arts & Sciences, Georgia.

Literature

D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds: A complete catalogue of his paintings, New Haven, 2000, p. 335, no. 1259, as 'Sir Thomas Mills'.

Exhibited

(Possibly) Royal Academy, London, 1906, no. 80, the sitter identified as 'Sir Robert Fletcher'.

Lot Essay

There is confusion over the identification of several similar portraits of military officers by Reynolds which have been variously identified as Sir Robert Fletcher or Sir Thomas Mills. The present work would appear to be a version of a portrait of the former, that was engraved by William Dickinson in 1774 and is now untraced (Mannings, loc. cit., p. 197, no. 650). Sir Robert Fletcher was the son of Robert Fletcher of Ballinasloe and his wife, Elizabeth. He served in India and was knighted on 29 December 1763 and was M.P. for Crickland 1768-74. He married on 17 December 1774, Anne Pybus. He returned to India, contracted tuberculosis and died in Mauritius on his way home from Madras.

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