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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  wikidata:Q133097875 reasonator:Q133097875
Artist
George Romney (1734–1802)  wikidata:Q371280
 
George Romney
Description British painter, portraitist and artist
Date of birth/death 15 December 1734 (in Julian calendarEdit this at Wikidata 15 November 1802 Edit this at Wikidata
Location of birth/death Dalton-in-Furness Edit this at Wikidata Kendal Edit this at Wikidata
Work location
Authority file
creator QS:P170,Q371280
 Edit this at Wikidata
image of artwork listed in title parameter on this page
Title
Mrs Susannah Whatman (1756-1828), née Bosanquet
label QS:Len,"Mrs Susannah Whatman (1756-1828), née Bosanquet"
Object type painting Edit this at Wikidata
Genre portrait Edit this at Wikidata
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.
Depicted people Susanna Bosanquet Edit this at Wikidata
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
 Edit this at Wikidata
Medium oil on canvas Edit this at Wikidata
Dimensions height: 76.2 cm (30 in) Edit this at Wikidata; width: 63.8 cm (25.1 in) Edit this at Wikidata
dimensions QS:P2048,+76.2U174728
dimensions QS:P2049,+63.8U174728
Object history

Provenance:

  • The sitter, and by descent to,
  • G.D. Whatman, by 1908.
  • with Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, by 1912.
  • with Reinhardt Galleries, by 1913.
  • Dr. Henry Norton Torrey (1880-1945) and Mrs Nell Ford Torrey (1875-1958), Detroit, by 1917, and by descent.
  • Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 17 January 1985, lot 141.
  • with Hirschl & Adler, New York, and with Newhouse Galleries, New York, where acquired by the present owner.
Exhibition history
  • London, Grafton Galleries, Exhibition of a Special Selection from the Works by George Romney, Summer, 1900, no. 38.
  • London, Agnew's, The [Twelfth] Annual Exhibition on Behalf of the Artists' General Benevolent Fund, 1906, no. 5.
  • London, Royal Academy, Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters and Deceased Masters of the British School, Winter, 1908, no. 142.
  • New York, Reinhardt Galleries, Loan exhibition of paintings from Memling, Holbein and Titian to Renoir and Picasso at the Reinhardt Galleries: in aid of the Greenwich House Health Center, 27 February-17 March 1928, no. 16.
  • Sold at Christie's (Old Masters), The Estate of Carol Browning and Edmund Wattis Dumke, New-York, 23 May 2024, lot 42, for USD 94,500.
References https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6481085 Edit this at Wikidata
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:
Public domain

The author died in 1802, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer.


This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1930.

This file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights.
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

Portrait of Mrs Susannah Whatman (1756-1828), née Bosanquet

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current18:17, 6 March 2025Thumbnail for version as of 18:17, 6 March 20251,607 × 1,950 (609 KB)BeavercountUploaded a work by George Romney from https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6481085 with UploadWizard

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