Thomas Gainsborough
Robert Adair
1784
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Thomas Gainsborough
Robert Adair
1784
Physical Qualities
Oil on canvas, 25 x 29 3/4 in. (63.5 x 75.6 cm.)
Credit Line
The Jacob Epstein Collection
Object Number
1951.109
Typical of Gainsborough's portraiture, this work shows the sitter in a half-length format simply presented without the benefit of elaborate costume or background setting. Robert Adair (1763-1855) was the son of Robert Adair, Surgeon-General to King George III of England. The portrait was painted in the mid-1780s when Adair was still in his twenties. He would become a celebrated diplomat and publish memoirs of his various missions, as well as several political pamphlets.
The Baltimore Museum of Art on deposit; The Baltimore Museum of Art on extended loan, 1932-1951; the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, by bequest, 1945; Jacob Epstein by purchase, 1924; from M. Knoedler; purchased from Sir C. Townshend sale, 1923; Colnaghi; Marquess Townshend, Raynham Hall, Norfolk, 1904
Marquess Townshend, Raynham Hall, Norfolk, his sale, 5th March 1904, lot 59
Sir C. Townshend sale, 13th July 1923
ed. Professor Brian Harrison, "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography." Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Vol 1, p. 189, ill.
Belsey, Hugh. Thomas Gainsborough: The Portraits, Fancy Pictures and Copies After Old Masters. 2 vols. New Haven and London: Yale University Press; London: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2019.
