Isabella Wolff

1803/15

Sir Thomas Lawrence
English, 1769-1830

Produced over the course of 12 years, this portrait depicts Isabella Wolff, one of Sir Thomas Lawrence’s most intimate friends, contemplating a printed image of the Delphic Sibyl from Michelangelo’s famous Sistine Chapel ceiling. Wolff’s serpentine pose cleverly echoes another Sibyl from that same work. The Sibyls were priestesses of Classical legend who made enigmatic judgments and prophecies. They were often pictured according to Western fantasies of the Near East, hence Wolff’s elaborate turban here. Lawrence was famed for his ability to evoke the surface effects and textures of clothing; that talent is on full display in Wolff’s shimmering satin gown.

Status: On View, Gallery 220
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Sir Thomas Lawrence
Title: Isabella Wolff
Place: England (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1803–1815
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 128.2 × 102.4 cm (50 1/2 × 40 5/16 in.)
Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Kimball Collection
Reference Number: 1922.4461
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/4773/manifest.json

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Lord Ronald Sutherland, Sir Thomas Lawrence (London, 1900), p. 168.
George Somes Layard, ed., Sir Thomas Lawrence’s Letter-Bag With Recollections of the Artist by Miss Elizabeth Croft (New York, 1906), pp. 243, 247, ill. opp. p. 147.
Freeman Marius O’Donoghue, Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum vol. 4 (London, 1914), p. 527.
Sir Walter Armstrong, Lawrence (London, 1919), pp. 65, 172, pl. 37.
The Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago Handbook of Sculpture, Architecture, Paintings and Drawings: Part II: Paintings and Drawings (Chicago, 1920), no. 758.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Notes: the Kimball Collection,” Bulletin of The Art Institute of Chicago 14, 5 (1920), p. 73 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago Handbook of Sculpture, Architecture, Paintings and Drawings: Part II: Paintings and Drawings (Chicago, 1922), no. 758.
The Art Institute of Chicago Forty-Fourth Annual Report (Chicago, 1922), p. 51 (ill.).
Marguerite B. Williams, “Valuable Collection of Paintings Added to Chicago’s Art Treasures,” America Today-Fort Dearborn Magazine (Mid-Winter 1924), p. 11 (ill.).
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Charles Henry Collins Baker, British Painting (London, 1933), p. 281.
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Frederick A. Sweet, “Great Chicago Collectors,” Apollo 84 (1966), fig. 12.
David and Francina Irwin, Scottish Painters at Home and Abroad 1700-1900 (London, 1975), p. 162.
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James N. Wood and Katherine C. Lee, Master Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 1988), p. 47 (ill.).
Kenneth Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence: A Complete Catalogue of the Oil Painting (Oxford, 1989), no. 838, fig. 73.
John Wilson, “The Romantics, 1790-1830” in The British Portrait 1660-1960, intro. by Sir Roy Strong (Woodbridge, 1991), p. 290, pl. 279.
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London, Royal Academy, The Exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1815, cat. 28.
Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University, Fogg Art Museum, Exhibition of Eighteenth Century English, May 5–19, 1930, cat. 47.
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London, Royal Academy of Arts, Royal Academy of Arts Bicentenary Exhibition, 1768–1968, December 14, 1968–March 2, 1969, cat. 181 (ill.).
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New Haven, Yale Center for British Art, Sir Thomas Lawrence: Portraits of an Age, 1790-1830, February 27-April 25, 1993, cat. 40; Forth Worth, TX, Kimbell Art Museum, May 15-July 11, 1993; Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, July 31-September 26, 1993.
National Portrait Gallery, London, Thomas Lawrence: Regency, Power, & Brilliance, October 21, 2010- January 23, 2011; Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, February 24- June 5, 2011. cat. 35.

Commissioned by the sitter’s sister, Mrs. Walter (Clarissa) Hill, The Rocklands, near Goodrich, Herefordshire, 1802 or 1803 [see New York 1879]; possibly given to her by the artist, 1815 [information based on a label once on the back of the frame: “Portrait of Mrs. Wolff painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence and respectfully presented to her sister Mrs. Hill 1815 T L;” the label was transcribed by Walter Guy Hill, owner of the portrait, in a manuscript account of the history of the work, dated February 29, 1904, copy in curatorial file]; by descent to her son, the Rev. Walter Henry Hill (died 1867); on loan to his sister, Mrs. Robert (Isabella) Coke (died 1870), South Lodge, Newland, Gloucestershire, 1846-70; by descent to the Rev. Hill’s son, Walter Guy Hill (died 1906), Monmouth [see manuscript citied above and Major Peter Hill’s letter, dated January 27, 1982, copy in curatorial file]; probably sold between 1904 and 1906 [the painting was not mentioned in Walter Guy Hill’s will]. Mrs. W. W. Kimball (died 1921), Chicago by 1920; on loan to the Art Institute in 1920-21; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1922.

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