The Magdalen
Miniature
1723 (made)
1723 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Sarah Stanley (born Sloane, ca. 1709-1764) was the eldest daughter of Sir Hans Sloane, the seventeenth-century physician and collector whose large collection formed the basis of the British Museum and the Natural History Museum. Sloane travelled to Jamaica and eventually married Elizabeth Langley Rose, the heiress to a Jamaican plantation, in 1695. Their fortune from Jamaica funded Sloane’s collecting. Sarah would have grown up in Sloane’s home, which was filled with art, plants, gemstones, coins, antiquities, and other curiosities and gave her unparalleled access to works of art. She began copying works in Sloane’s collection as a teenager—including portraits by Rosalba Carriera and Hilliard’s Unknown Man Clasping A Hand From A Cloud, now in the collection of the V&A. Her style suggests Stanley may have taken further lessons with the miniature painter Bernard Lens. This miniature was painted after Titian's Mary Magdalene or a copy of it.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | The Magdalen (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Watercolour on vellum strained on oak panel |
| Brief description | Miniature, The Magdalen, by Sarah Stanley (born Sloane) after Titian, watercolour on vellum strained on oak panel, 1723 |
| Physical description | Miniature painting on vellum depicting Mary Magdalen, copy after Titian |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Marks and inscriptions | 'S. Stanley Fecit 1723' (Signed and dated) |
| Object history | Part of lot 1307 on the fourth day's sale (13 July 1955) at Paultons, Hants, formerly the property of Major R. C. Hans Sloane Stanley, a descendant of the artist who was herself the elder daughter of Sir Hans Sloane Bt., and married George Stanley in 1719. The sale also included portraits, drawings, and needlework by Stanley, including possibly a copy after Hilliard's Man Clutching a Hand in the Clouds (P.21-1942), a version of which was in Sloane's possession. See note to P.50-1955. The prototype by Titian is in the Hermitage Museum, Leningrad. Replicas exist, and it may be from one of these, or from an engraving, that Sarah Stanley worked. |
| Subject depicted | |
| Associations | |
| Summary | Sarah Stanley (born Sloane, ca. 1709-1764) was the eldest daughter of Sir Hans Sloane, the seventeenth-century physician and collector whose large collection formed the basis of the British Museum and the Natural History Museum. Sloane travelled to Jamaica and eventually married Elizabeth Langley Rose, the heiress to a Jamaican plantation, in 1695. Their fortune from Jamaica funded Sloane’s collecting. Sarah would have grown up in Sloane’s home, which was filled with art, plants, gemstones, coins, antiquities, and other curiosities and gave her unparalleled access to works of art. She began copying works in Sloane’s collection as a teenager—including portraits by Rosalba Carriera and Hilliard’s Unknown Man Clasping A Hand From A Cloud, now in the collection of the V&A. Her style suggests Stanley may have taken further lessons with the miniature painter Bernard Lens. This miniature was painted after Titian's Mary Magdalene or a copy of it. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | P.53-1955 |
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| Record created | June 30, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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