Thomas Gainsborough
Robert Adair
1784
Physical Qualities
Oil on canvas, Overall: 25 × 29 3/4 in. (63.5 × 75.6 cm.)
Framed: 37 × 32 × 3 in. (94 × 81.3 × 7.6 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
"A Century of Baltimore Collecting", 1941, cat., page 73
"Angelica Kauffmann and Her Times", Amt der Landeshauptstadt, Bregenz, Austria, July 23 - October 13, 1968 and Vienna, November 8, 1968 - February 1, 1969, cat. #239, - .107. repr. plate 91
"Angelica Kauffmann and Her Times", Amt der Landeshauptstadt, Bregenz, Austria, July 23 - October 13, 1968 and Vienna, November 8, 1968 - February 1, 1969, cat. #239, - .107. repr. plate 91
Mortimer Menpes and James Greig, "Gainsborough", London. 1909, p. 169
Marquess Townshend, Raynham Hall, Norfolk, his sale, 5th March 1904, lot 59
William T. Whitley, "Thomas Gainsborough", London, 1915, p. 339
Sir C. Townshend sale, 13th July 1923
"The Jacob Epstein Collection in the Baltimore Museum of Art", 1939, p. 13
Ellis K. Waterhouse, "Preliminary Checklist of Portraits by Thomas Gainsborough 1949-1950", "Walpole Society", Oxford, 1953, 33, p. 2
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.
