
Not on display
- Artist
- Sir Joshua Reynolds 1723–1792
- Medium
- Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- Support: 552 × 508 mm
frame: 761 × 719 × 85 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Bequeathed by Henry Vaughan 1900
- Reference
- N01840
Display caption
Reynolds rarely made preliminary sketches even for complex compositions. But the magnificent group of the family of the Duke of Marlborough, which still dominates the Red Drawing Room at Blenheim Palace, was clearly an exception. Conceived in the grandest traditions of Rubens and Van Dyck, it was to influence society portraiture into this century. This sketch shows the painter struggling with the problem of integrating the solemn splendour of the adults with a more modern, relaxed informality preferred for young children and dogs. The end result shows brilliantly the range of Reynolds's wit and originality as a portraitist.
Gallery label, September 2004
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Explore
- architecture(41,309)
- domestic(1,812)
- animals: mammals(4,878)
-
- dog - non-specific(1,043)
- estate(334)
- furnishings(3,079)
-
- curtain(255)
- child(1,323)
- groups(311)
You might like
-
Sir Joshua Reynolds Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn and his Mother
c.1768–9 -
Sir Joshua Reynolds The Holy Family with the Infant St John
1788–9 -
Sir Joshua Reynolds Lord and Lady Ashburton
1782–7 -
Thomas Gainsborough The Baillie Family
c.1784 -
Sir Joshua Reynolds Lady Talbot
exhibited 1782 -
Johan Zoffany Colonel Blair with his Family and an Indian Ayah
1786 -
Sir Joshua Reynolds Master Crewe as Henry VIII
c.1775 -
Sir Joshua Reynolds Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle
1769 -
Sir Joshua Reynolds The Hon. Miss Monckton
1777–8 -
Sir Joshua Reynolds Sir James Hodges
1765 -
Francis Wheatley A Family Group in a Landscape
c.1775 -
John Hamilton Mortimer George Thompson, his Wife and (?) his Sister-in-Law
c.1766–8 -
John Singleton Copley The Fountaine Family
?1776 -
Sir Joshua Reynolds Mr Huddesford and Mr Bampfylde
c.1778