Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A.* (1723-1792)

Details

Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A.* (1723-1792)

Portrait of Mrs. Miller, half length, wearing a blue and white gown trimmed with ermine and a black ribbon at her neck, in a painted oval
oil on canvas
30¼ x 25¼in. (76.8 x 64.2cm.)

Provenance

Commissioned by Thomas Miller (payment for the painting is recorded as being received on March 16, 1763) and by descent to
A. Wellesley Miller Esq. (by whom loaned to the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh); Christie's, London, July 28, 1927, lot 11 (unsold).

Literature

A. Graves and W.V. Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A., 1899, II, pp. 646-7.
Sir W. Armstrong, Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1900, p. 220.
Dictionary of National Biography, ed. S. Lee, XIII, 1909, p. 423.

Lot Essay

Margaret Miller, eldest daughter of John Murdoch, married Thomas Miller on April 16, 1752. Her husband enjoyed a distinguished legal career and was made Lord Justice Clerk in 1766, taking the title of Lord Barskimming which he later changed to that of Lord Glenlee. She died on 18 April 1767.

The pendant to the present painting depicting Sir Thomas Miller, half length, in dark robes, was lot 12 in the same Christie's sale in 1927.