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    300 years
    Return to "London, Cardiff and New Haven 1982-83" is linked to these Works 146 items
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    Portrait of Thomas Jenkins

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    Portrait of Thomas Jenkins
    Portrait of Thomas Jenkins
    Portrait of Thomas Jenkins
    The Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum, New York. III, 42
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    Portrait of Thomas Jenkins
    Date
    c.1752-53 (undated)
    Medium
    Black chalk and stump heightened with white chalk, on green-grey paper
    Dimensions
    Metric: 272 x 198 mm
    Imperial: 10 3/4 x 7 13/16 in.
    Collection
    The Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum, New York. To license image, click here.
    Accession Number
    E. 18.17
    Wilson Online Reference
    D162
    Exhibited
    Detroit & Philadelphia 1968 (1); London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (24); Tercentenary 2014 (2)
    Provenance
    William Lock of Norbury, bt directly from the artist; his sale, Sotheby's, London 3-7 May 1821 (probably part of lot 387 - six drawings catalogued as 'Varia Costumi Italia',fine); James (according to Fairfax Murray); A. W. Thibaudeau; his sale, London, Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge, 9 December 1889 (1142); Charles Fairfax Murray, London; from whom bt 1910 by J. Pierpont Morgan (no mark; see Lugt 1509)
    Signature/inscription
    Unsigned; no inscription
    Techniques and materials
    The varied application of chalk confirms a date early within Wilson's Roman period.
    Verso inscriptions
    [1] Unknown hand in pen and brown ink [probably William Lock, not Wilson]: Jenkings;
    [2] Numbered in pencil: 387/6;
    [3] Inscribed below: Locks sale 1821
    [4] Inscribed below: Wilson del.
    Subject
    This portrait is that of Wilson's travelling companion, colleague and friend in Rome, the painter, banker and dealer, Thomas Jenkins (1722-1798). The sitter's identity derives from the inscription on the back of the sheet, which may be in the hand of William Lock, who acquired the drawing directly from the artist. Jenkins was living with Wilson in Rome in a house in the Piazza di Spagna in 1753. That would make him aged 31 as shown here.
    Related Works by Other Artists
    Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807): Thomas Jenkins and his Niece, Anna Maria , 1790, National Portrait Gallery, London (NPG 5044)
    Critical commentary
    Probably made early in Wilson's stay in Rome, where Jenkins arrived with the artist in late 1751, having travelled from Venice together with William Lock of Norbury in his carriage. In 1753 Wilson was recorded as living with Jenkins in or near the Piazza di Spagna and Jenkins had become his unofficial agent, liaising with potential clients and facilitating the despatch of pictures to Britain. Something of their closeness is tangible in the informality of this characterisation. At the time of its execution, the young Jenkins himself was still known principally as a working artist. Ford compared the stylistic handling of this drawing with that of D161 Head of an Italian, Victoria and Albert Museum, noting the rendering in the dark shadow of the eye sockets and the handling of the collar and cuff.
    Previous Cat/Ref Nos
    III,42
    Bibliography
    Collection J. Pierpont Morgan, Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray, London, privately printed, 1905-12, vol. 3, 42, repr.; Ashby 1913, Vol. 6, no. 8, pp. 487-511; Ford 1951, p. 54, pl. 20; WGC, pl. 11a; S. Rowland Pierce, 'Thomas Jenkins in Rome', The Antiquaries Journal, vol. 45, no. 2 (1965), pp. 225–229; F. Cummings, R. Rosenblum & A. Staley Romantic Art in Britain - Paintings and Drawings 1760-1860, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1968, pp. 32-34; Sutton & Clements 1968, vol. 2, p. 5, fig. 5; B. Ford, 'Thomas Jenkins, Banker, Dealer and unofficial English Agent', Apollo, vol. 99, June 1974, pp. 416-25; Solkin 1982, pp. 158-59; G. Vaughan, 'Thomas Jenkins and his international Clientele', Antikensammlungen des europaischen Adels in 18 Jahrhundert, ed. A. Borschung, A. H. von Hesberg (1996. Mainz); I. Bignamini, 'British Conquerors of the Marbles, 2 Thomas Jenkins as Connoisseur', in I. Bignamini and C. Hornsby, Digging And Dealing in Eighteenth-Century Rome (2010, Yale), pp. 208–21; Spencer-Longhurst 2012, pp. 69-70, fig. 40; Wilson and Europe 2014, pp. 206-7
    Link to WG Constable Archive Record
    WGC/1/1/14

    Exhibitions

    • London, Tate Gallery, Cardiff, National Museum of Wales, and New Haven, Conn., Yale Center for British Art, 3 November 1982 - 19 June 1983
    • New Haven, Yale Center for British Art & Cardiff, Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, 6 March - 29 October 2014
    • Detroit Institute of Arts & Philadelphia Museum of Art, 9 January - 21 April 1968

    Biographies

    • William Lock 'of Norbury' (1732-1810)
    • Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919)
    • Thomas Jenkins (1722-1798)

    Documents

    • David Solkin, Richard Wilson: The Landscape of Reaction
    • Brinsley Ford, The Drawings of Richard Wilson
    • Paul Spencer-Longhurst, 'All the Quality of his Pictures except the Colour': Richard Wilson's Drawings as Collectors' Items
    • Martin Postle & Robin Simon, Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting
    • Denys Sutton & Ann Clements, An Italian Sketchbook by Richard Wilson, RA: Drawings made by the Artist in Rome and its Environs in the Year 1754
    • Thomas Ashby, 'Thomas Jenkins in Rome' in Papers of the British School at Rome
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