Portrait of a lady seated in an armchair
- Object:
- Place of origin:
England, Great Britain (made)
- Date:
1830 (painted)
1831 (exhibited)
- Artist/Maker:
Frederick Cruickshank, born 1800 - died 1868 (artist)
- Materials and Techniques:
Watercolour and body-colour
- Museum number:
- Gallery location:
Prints & Drawings Study Room, room WS, case R, shelf 15, box L
- Download image
Cruickshank's anonymous subject is seated in a comfortable well-appointed drawing room. The room is furnished with a square piano and a guitar, and beneath the piano, a Canterbury--a rack designed to hold music. On the mantlepiece there is an ice pail doing duty as a vase for cut flowers. The woman has a distant melancholy air. Indeed the picture as a whole is ambiguous and puzzling. There is a pair of gloves on the floor in the foreground; this odd detail may in fact provide the clue to the mystery. Perhaps we are meant to see the woman as an abandoned wife or mistress, cast off like an old glove, as the saying has it. The sitter has not been identified but the bust on the pedestal behind her strongly resembles Sir Francis Chantrey's bust of James Watt (1736-1819), the engineer and inventor of the improved steam engine. Three versions of the bust were made, two for the Watt family, and one for a Colonel Campbell. Cruickshank exhibited a portrait of a Captain Campbell in 1829, so it is possible that this watercolour is a portrait of a member of Campbell's family.
Physical description
Cruickshank's anonymous subject has the individuality of a portrait. She is seated in a comfortable well-appointed drawing room. The room is furnished with a square piano and a guitar, and beneath the piano, a Canterbury, a rack designed to hold music. On the mantelpiece there is an ice pail doing duty as a vase for cut flowers. The woman has a distant melancholy air. Indeed the picture as a whole is ambiguous and heavy with mystery. There is a pair of gloves on the floor in the foreground; this odd detail may in fact provide the clue to the mystery. Perhaps we are meant to see the woman as an abandoned mistress, cast off like an old glove, as the saying has it. The sitter has not been identified but the bust on the pedestal behind her strongly resembles Sir Francis Chantrey's bust of James Watt (1736-1819), the engineer and inventor of the improved steam engine. Three versions of the bust were made, one for a Colonel Campbell. Cruickshank exhibited a portrait of a Captain Campbell in 1829, so it is possible that this watercolour is a portrait of a member of Campbell's family.
Place of Origin
England, Great Britain (made)
Date
1830 (painted)
1831 (exhibited)
Artist/maker
Frederick Cruickshank, born 1800 - died 1868 (artist)
Materials and Techniques
Watercolour and body-colour
Marks and inscriptions
Signed and dated in pencil 'F. Cruickshank 1830'.
Dimensions
Height: 45 cm, Width: 33 cm
Descriptive line
Watercolour portrait of a lady seated in an armchair, by F. Cruickshank. Great Britain, 1830.
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Home and Garden: Paintings and Drawings of English, middle-class urban domestic spaces 1675 to 1914. Edited by David Dewing (Geffrye Museum, London, 2003)
Dimensions taken from Victoria & Albert Museum Department of Engraving Illustration and Design & Department of Paintings, Accessions 1946. London: Published under the Authority of the Ministry of Education, 1949.
The full text of the entry is as follows:
"CRUICKSHANK, Frederick (1800-1868)
Portrait of a lady seated in an armchair.
Signed and dated in pencil F. Cruickshank.
Water-colour and body-colour. 173/4 X 13 P.1-1946"
Exhibition History
Home and Garden: Part One, 1675-1830 (Geffrye Museum 16/09/2003-18/01/2004)
Materials
Watercolour
Techniques
Painting
Subjects depicted
Furniture; Bust; Clothing; Interiors; Paintings; Piano; Guitar; Canterbury
Categories
Interiors
Collection code
PDP
