File:Portrait of Mrs Susannah Whatman (1756-1828), née Bosanquet.jpg

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Summary
{{ |description= |date=1782 |source= |author=George Romney |permission= |other versions= }}
George Romney: Mrs Susannah Whatman (1756-1828), née Bosanquet
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Artist |
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Title |
Mrs Susannah Whatman (1756-1828), née Bosanquet label QS:Len,"Mrs Susannah Whatman (1756-1828), née Bosanquet" |
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Object type |
painting ![]() |
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Genre |
portrait ![]() |
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Description |
English: Portrait of Mrs Susannah Whatman (1756-1828), née Bosanquet, half-length, in a painted oval.
In an oval, directed to left, looking at the spectator, nearly full-face; light-brown shot-silk dress cut low; hair powdered, bound with light ribbon. Sittings: 1778, May 5, 7, 8 ; 1782, Jan. 22, 25, 26, 29, Feb. I, May 13, 15. (WHATMAN, MRS.) Admired for her poise and beauty, twenty-three year old Susannah Bosanquet married James Whatman (1741-1798) in 1776. The Huguenot Bosanquets had come to England in 1686 from Lunel in Languedoc and Susannah’s father, Jacob Bosanquet, had prospered as a Director of the East India Company before his death in 1767. James Whatman's father, James Whatman the Elder (1702-1759), began a paper mill in Kent that revolutionized the papermaking process in England. Whatman the Elder has been credited with developing wove paper, whose textured surface proved far superior for artists and printmakers than the existing laid paper. Whatman's wove paper was used to print John Baskerville's seminal edition of Virgil in 1757, which took three years to finish and pioneered Baskerville's invented typeface. This printing drew the attention and interest of Benjamin Franklin, who brought Whatman's novel invention to the American colonies and used it to print colonial currency in Philadelphia. James Whatman furthered his father's innovations of producing fine paper and the business's technology and methods for processing paper pulp are still used in mass production. Susannah Whatman was James Whatman’s second wife, after his first wife Sarah (née Stanley) had died leaving him with two young daughters. By all accounts, his marriage to Susannah was a happy one, and in 1778 Whatman commissioned a portrait of his wife from George Romney. According to Romney's account books, Mrs. Whatman sat for the artist seventeen times between 1778 and 1782. In his catalogue raisonné on the artist, Alex Kidson comments that the last two sittings in 1782 were likely as a result of the fact that Mrs. Whatman’s looks had changed in the four years since the commission had begun (Kidson, loc cit.). Susannah Whatman ran the household at Turkey Court, near Maidstone, and later at Vintners at Boxley in Kent; during the course of her life she wrote meticulous notes on how best to manage a household and preserve furniture, china, and the house in general. She turned the formidable instructions into a manuscript, which was passed down in her family until it was published in 1952 as Susanna Whatman, her housekeeping book, and later declared a National Trust Classic in 1987. |
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Depicted people |
Susanna Bosanquet ![]() |
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Date |
between 1778 and 1782 date QS:P,+1750-00-00T00:00:00Z/7,P1319,+1778-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1326,+1782-00-00T00:00:00Z/9 ![]() |
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Medium |
oil on canvas ![]() |
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Dimensions |
height: 76.2 cm (30 in) ![]() ![]() dimensions QS:P2048,+76.2U174728 dimensions QS:P2049,+63.8U174728 |
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Object history |
Provenance:
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Exhibition history |
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References |
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6481085 ![]() |
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Source/Photographer | https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6481085 |
Licensing
This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
The official position taken by the Wikimedia Foundation is that "faithful reproductions of two-dimensional public domain works of art are public domain".
This photographic reproduction is therefore also considered to be in the public domain in the United States. In other jurisdictions, re-use of this content may be restricted; see Reuse of PD-Art photographs for details. |
Captions
Items portrayed in this file
depicts
1782
File history
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Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
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current | 18:17, 6 March 2025 | ![]() | 1,607 × 1,950 (609 KB) | Beavercount | Uploaded a work by George Romney from https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6481085 with UploadWizard |
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