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    Study for the Portrait of Admiral Thomas Smith

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    Study for the Portrait of Admiral Thomas Smith
    Study for the Portrait of Admiral Thomas Smith
    Study for the Portrait of Admiral Thomas Smith
    National Galleries of Scotland / Photography by Antonia Reeve. William Findlay Watson Bequest 1881
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    Study for the Portrait of Admiral Thomas Smith
    Date
    c.1744
    Medium
    Black chalk and stump heightened with white on blue paper, inlaid
    Dimensions
    Metric: 383 x 270 mm
    Imperial: 14 11/16 x 10 5/8 in.
    Collection
    National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh. To license images click here.
    Accession Number
    D 3221
    Wilson Online Reference
    D1
    Description
    Portrait of Admiral Thomas Smith, appointed Commander-in-Chief of Ships in Scotland in 1744. He wears a wig and appears head and shoulders, turned to the right, while his head is inclined almost full face.
    Exhibited
    Leicester October 1952, Old Master Drawings (74); Glasgow 1953-54, English Drawings (2); London RA 1956-57, Exhibition of British Portraits; Tokyo, National Museum of Western Art 1975, English Portraits (118); National Gallery of Scotland, Drawings from the Bequest of W.F. Watson 1881-1981, Edinburgh 1981 (36); London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (3)
    Provenance
    [?] John Richards, R.A.; W. Esdaile sale, Christie's 21 March 1838, bt Vaughan; W.F. Watson, an Edinburgh bookseller; bequest of W.F. Watson, 1881
    Signature/inscription
    Inscribed, lower right, in black ink: R.W
    Techniques and materials
    As noted by Solkin, the drawing is very much in the tradition of Kneller and the older Richardson and is especially like comparable works by Allan Ramsay, whom Wilson no doubt met through the St Martin's Lane Academy.
    Subject
    Admiral Thomas Smith (1707-1762), illegitimate son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton, began a naval career as a junior lieutenant in 1728 and rose through the ranks to his appontment as Commander-in-Chief of Ships in Scotland in 1744.
    Related Paintings
    P9 Hagley Hall, Worcestershire
    P9A National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
    Critical commentary
    E.K. Waterhouse identified this drawing as a study of Smith by Wilson (Ford 1951, p.15, n.1). It was part of his preparation for two portraits in oil, P9 (collection of Viscount Cobham, Hagley Hall) and P9A (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich). Ford and Baker correctly note that it is slightly closer to the Greenwich version (see Bibliography), for example in the arrangement of the curls of the wig. The portraits were painted in 1744, when the sitter was appointed commodore, and are the artist's earliest works in this genre. The drawing bears out Edward Edwards's comments that Wilson 'drew a head equal to any of the portrait painters of his time.' (Edwards 1808. p.80.)
    Bibliography
    Edwards 1808, p. 80; Ford 1951, p.51, pl.1B; WGC, p. 151, pl. 2c; Baker 2011, pp. 413 & 414 repr.; Solkin 1982, p. 145
    Updated by Compiler
    2019-11-12 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Prints

    • John Faber the Younger (c.1684-1756) after Wilson, Thomas Smith Esq., Vice Admiral of the White, The British Museum
    • John Faber the Younger (c.1684-1756) after Wilson, Thomas Smith, Esq (Admiral Thomas Smith), Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven
    • John Faber the Younger (c.1684-1756) after Wilson, Admiral Thomas Smith, Private Collection, England
    • John Faber the Younger (c.1684-1756) after Wilson, Thomas Smith, National Portrait Gallery, London

    Paintings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), Commodore Thomas Smith, Hagley Hall, Worcestershire
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), Admiral Thomas Smith, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London

    Exhibitions

    • London, Tate Gallery, Cardiff, National Museum of Wales, and New Haven, Conn., Yale Center for British Art, 3 November 1982 - 19 June 1983

    Biographies

    • Admiral Thomas Smith (1707-1762)
    • William Esdaile (1758-1837)

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • David Solkin, Richard Wilson: The Landscape of Reaction
    • Brinsley Ford, The Drawings of Richard Wilson
    • Edward Edwards, Anecdotes of Painters who have resided or been born in England; with critical Remarks on their Productions
    • Christopher Baker, English Drawings and Watercolours 1600-1900, National Gallery of Scotland
    • Richard Wilson, Letter to Admiral Smith
    • Elizabeth Wilson, Letter to Admiral Smith
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