Isabella Wolff

CC0 Public Domain Designation

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

1803/15

Sir Thomas Lawrence
English, 1769-1830

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Sir Thomas Lawrence
Title: Isabella Wolff
Place: England (Object made in)
Date: 1803–1815
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 50 1/2 × 40 5/16 in. (128.2 × 102.4 cm)
Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Kimball Collection
Reference Number: 1922.4461
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Frances Ann Kemble, Records of a Girlhood (New York, 1879), pp. 210-11.
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.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago 1925), p. 34 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago 1932), p. 88 (ill.).
Charles Henry Collins Baker, British Painting (London, 1933), p. 281.
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Illustrated Guide to the Collections (Chicago, 1935), p. 26.
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Illustrated Guide to the Collections (Chicago, 1941), p. 32.
The Art Institute of Chicago, An Illustrated Guide to the Collections of The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 1945), p. 34.
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Illustrated Guide to the Collections (Chicago, 1948), p. 31.
Douglas Goldring, Regency Portrait Painter: The Life of Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A. (London, 1951), pp. 205, 235, 23, pl. 176.
Kenneth Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence (London, 1954), p. 63, pl. 77.
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Guide to the Collections (Chicago, 1956), p. 32.
David Pipper, “Between Georgian Decorum and Melodrama,” Art News 59, 3 (1960), p. 64, fig. 3.
Malcolm Vaughan, “The Connoisseur in America,” The Connoisseur 146, 588 (1960), pp. 146, 147 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), p. 256.
Sir Thomas Lawrence, PRA: 1769-1830 exh. cat. (London, Royal Academy of Arts, 1961), p. 33, under cat. 70.
Kenneth Garlick, ed., A Catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings and Pastels of Sir Thomas Lawrence (Glasgow, 1964), p. 202.
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.
John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago, rev. ed. (London, 1977), pp. 67–68, 283, (ill.) 68.
John D. Morse, Paintings in North America: Over 3000 Masterpieces by 50 Great Artists (New York, 1979), p. 192.
Kenneth Garlick, “Round the Galleries: The Glamour of Lawrence,” Apollo n. s. 61, 215 (1980), p. 67 (ill.).
Oliver Millar, “Sir Thomas Lawrence at the National Portrait Gallery,” The Burlington Magazine 72 (1980), p. 76.
The Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago 100 Masterpieces (Chicago, 1983), p. 20.
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.
Duncan Thomson, “Sir Henry Raeburn: An Introduction to his Art and Life” in Raeburn: The Art of Sir Henry Raeburn 1756-1823, exh. cat. (Edinburgh, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 1997), p. 27, fig. 27.
A. Cassandra Albinson, “The Construction of Desire: Lawrence’s Portraits of Women,” Thomas Lawrence: Regency, Power, & Brilliance, exh. cat. (London, National Portrait Gallery, 2010), p. xvii, p. 39-43, p. 164-166, p. 212-215, fig. 28, cat. 22, cat. 35

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.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1933, cat. 198 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1934, cat. 144.
Columbus, Ohio, Gallery of Fine Arts, Sir Thomas Lawrence as Painter and Collector, October 7–November 13, 1955, cat. 34 (ill.).
Worcester, Mass., Art Museum, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Regency Painter: A Loan Exhibition of His Portraits, April 27–June, 1960, cat. 11 (ill.).
London, Royal Academy of Arts, Royal Academy of Arts Bicentenary Exhibition, 1768–1968, December 14, 1968–March 2, 1969, cat. 181 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, European Portraits 1600–1900 in The Art Institute of Chicago, July 8–September 11, 1978, cat. 13 (ill.).
London, National Portrait Gallery, Sir Thomas Lawrence 1769-1830, November 9-March 16, 1980, cat 29 (ill.).
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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