Head of a bearded old man

Details

Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. (Plympton 1723-1792 London)
Head of a bearded old man
oil on canvas
18 x 17¾ in. (45.7 x 45.1 cm.)
in an early 19th century composition frame

Provenance

Mary, Marchioness of Thomond (1751-1820), the artist's niece;
her sale, Greenwood, London, 16 April 1796, lot 34, where acquired by the following,
Francis Osborne, 5th Duke of Leeds (1755-1799), and by descent through the Dukes of Leeds, Hornby Castle, Yorkshire, to the present owner.

Literature

Hornby Castle, Catalogue of Pictures, London, 1898.
A. Graves & W.V. Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A., London, 1899-1901, III, p. 1126.
W. Armstrong, Sir Joshua Reynolds, London, 1900, p. 241.
Historical and descriptive catalogue of pictures belonging to His Grace The Duke of Leeds, London, 1902...
D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds, A complete catalogue of his paintings, New Haven and London, 2000, I, p. 554, no. 2131, as untraced.

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Lot Essay

A friend and patron of the artist, Francis Osborne, 5th Duke of Leeds, was a great admirer of Reynolds' 'fancy pictures'; the present work is one of three he purchased at Reynolds' posthumous studio sale in 1796 for Hornby Castle, Leeds, the seat of the Dukes of Leeds. It was listed in the 1898 inventory of pictures (op. cit.), as hanging in the 'First Drawing Room' along with a character study of a young boy entitled Edwin (Christie's, London, 3 December 2013, lot 43, £500,000), a work described as Child and Angels (Christie's, London, 4 December 2013, lot 181), and the Infant Moses (U.S.A., private collection).

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