Portrait of David Garrick (1717-1779), half-length, in a maroon coat, a gold-embroidered green waistcoat and white stock, with lace cuffs, leaning on a draped table, a draped curtain behind

Details

After Thomas Gainsborough, R.A.
Portrait of David Garrick (1717-1779), half-length, in a maroon coat, a gold-embroidered green waistcoat and white stock, with lace cuffs, leaning on a draped table, a draped curtain behind
oil on canvas
30 3/8 x 25¼ in. (77.2 x 64.2 cm.)

Provenance

Presumably painted for Dr. Ralph Schomberg, and by descent to
E.C. Schomberg; Christie's, London, 7 May 1904, lot 120.
F. Fleischman.
Mrs. Oscar Ashcroft.
with Agnew's, London.
Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia, U.S.A.

Literature

T. Gainsborough, letter to John Henderson, quoted in W.T. Whitley, Gainsborough, 1915, p.38.
E. Waterhouse, Gainsborough, 1958, p.70.

Exhibited

Richmond, Virginia, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Painting in England, 1700-1850, 1963, no. 250.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The present picture was thought in the past to be an autograph copy by Gainsborough, and was given by the artist himself to his friend Dr. Ralph Schomberg. The original is now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.
The artist first became acquainted with Garrick in his early years as a portraitist in Bath. Thereafter they maintained a close friendship until the actor's death in 1779. Garrick, the most celebrated actor and theatre manager of the eighteenth century, was renowned in particular for his dramatisations of Shakespeare's works.

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