Robert Adair

c. 1785

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Thomas Gainsborough

Robert Adair

Thomas Gainsborough

Robert Adair

c. 1785

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

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.