Sir Joshua Reynolds, 'Lady Cockburn and her Three Eldest Sons', 1773
About the work
Overview
This painting of Lady Cockburn (1749–1837) with her three energetic infant boys combines a portrait of an individual with the personification of a virtue. It is based on traditional pictures of Charity, one of the three theological virtues, often shown as a mother selflessly caring for her children. Reynolds largely based his composition on Van Dyck’s Charity of 1627–8, and James, the child kneeling on Lady Cockburn’s lap, is an almost direct copy of Cupid in Velázquez’s The Toilet of Venus. Both paintings are now also in the National Gallery’s collection. Reynolds frequently ‘invented’ new pictures from a variety of artistic sources.
The brightly coloured macaw, painted from life, is probably Reynolds’s own bird, hated by his housemaid but reportedly tame enough to perch on the wrist of his friend, Dr Johnson.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Lady Cockburn and her Three Eldest Sons
- Artist
- Sir Joshua Reynolds
- Artist dates
- 1723 - 1792
- Date made
- 1773
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 141.5 × 113 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed; Dated
- Acquisition credit
- Bequeathed by Alfred Beit, 1906
- Inventory number
- NG2077
- Location
- Room 34
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Frame
- 18th-century English Frame (original frame)
Provenance
Commissioned by Sir James Cockburn, 8th Bt of Langton, Co. Berwick, the principal sitter’s husband (d. 1804); by descent to their eldest son General Sir James Cockburn, 9th Bt (d. 1852), and then to his only child Marianna Augusta, wife of Sir James John Hamilton, Bt; as a bequest from Lady Hamilton, first entered the National Gallery in 1892 as NG 1365, but after the legality of the bequest was challenged by six co-heiresses, was deaccessioned and delivered to the co-heiresses 8 April 1900; sold by them the next day to Agnew’s and Asher Wertheimer; purchased 11 April 1900 from Wertheimer by Alfred Beit, by whom bequeathed to the National Gallery 1906.
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Judy Egerton, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The British Paintings’, London 2000; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
-
2020Masterpieces from the National Gallery, LondonThe National Museum of Western Art18 June 2020 - 18 October 2020The National Museum of Art3 November 2020 - 31 January 2021
-
2021Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, LondonNational Gallery of Australia5 March 2021 - 14 June 2021
Bibliography
-
1773London, Royal Academy Library: Reynolds' Sitter Book, 1773
-
1834W. Roberts, Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Mrs Hannah More, 2nd edn, London 1834
-
1893National Gallery, Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery, with Biographical Notices of the Deceased Painters: British and Modern Schools, London 1893
-
1899A. Graves and W.V. Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds P.R.A., 4 vols, London 1899
-
1903M. Roldit, 'The Collection of Pictures of the Earl of Normanton, at Somerley, Hampshire, Part 1', The Burlington Magazine, II, 1903, pp. 211-3
-
1904W. von Bode, 'Neue Gemälde von Rubens in der Berliner Galerie', Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, XXV/2, 1904, pp. 102-7
-
1907'Portrait of a Lady and Three Children by Sebastian Bourdon from the Picture in the Possession of Sir Robert Edgcumbe, Kt', The Connoisseur, XVIII, 1907
-
1913R. Cockburn and H.A. Cockburn, The Records of the Cockburn Family, London 1913
-
1915National Gallery, National Gallery: Abridged Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the British and Foreign Pictures, London 1915
-
1934R.N.D. Wilson, The National and Tate Galleries, London 1934
-
1935W.P. Gibson, Wallace Collection Catalogues: Miniatures and Illuminations, London 1935
-
1937I.H. Tempeer, 'The Ease of Erring in the Diagnosis of Mongolism from Premedical Portraits', Bulletin of the Society of Medical History of Chicago, I, 1937, pp. 10-7
-
1937E. Wind, 'Charity: The Case History of a Pattern', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, I, 1937, pp. 322-30
-
1942E.H. Gombrich, 'Reynolds's Theory and Practice of Imitation', The Burlington Magazine, LXXX, 1942, pp. 40-5
-
1946Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: British School, London 1946
-
1946M. Davies, Paintings and Drawings on the Backs of National Gallery Pictures, London 1946
-
1959Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: British School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1959
-
1964L. Namier, 'BECKFORD, William (1760-1844), of Fonthill, Wilts.', in History of Parliament Trust (ed.), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social & Local History, London 1964-, 1754-1790, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/beckford-william-1760-1844
-
1968M. Cormack, 'The Ledgers of Sir Joshua Reynolds', The Walpole Society, XLII, 1970, pp. 105-69
-
1976H. Potterton, Reynolds and Gainsborough, Themes and Painters in the National Gallery 2, London 1976
-
1980G. Reynolds, Wallace Collection Catalogue of Miniature's, London 1980
-
1986D. Bull and E. Harris, 'The Companion of Velázquez's "Rokeby Venus" and a Source for Goya's "Naked Maja"', The Burlington Magazine, CXXVIII/1002, 1986, pp. 643-54
-
1987F. Broun, Sir Joshua Reynolds' Collection of Paintings, Phd Thesis, Princeton University 1987
-
1990R. Prochno, Joshua Reynolds, Weinheim 1990
-
1990D. Shawe-Taylor, The Georgians: Eighteenth-Century Portraiture and Society, London 1990
-
1991R. Prochno, 'Nationalism in British Eighteenth-Century Painting: Sir Joshua Reynolds and Benjamin West', Studies in the History of Art, XXIX, 1991, pp. 26-47
-
1994E. Langmuir, The National Gallery Companion Guide, London 1994
-
1994G. Perini, 'On Reynolds's Art of Borrowing: Two More Italian Sources', The Burlington Magazine, CXXXVI/1090, 1994, pp. 433-70
-
1995M. Postle, Sir Joshua Reynolds: The Subject Pictures, Cambridge 1995
-
1995J.C. Steward, The New Child: British Art and the Origins of Modern Childhood, 1730-1830 (exh. cat. University Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 23 August - 19 November 1995; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, 10 December 1995 - 4 February 1996; Joslyn Art Museum, 9 March - 5 May 1996), Berkeley 1995
-
1996C. Goldstein, Teaching Art: Academies and Schools from Vasari to Albers, Cambridge 1996
-
1998J. Egerton, The British School, London 1998
-
2000Egerton, Judy, National Gallery Catalogues: The British Paintings, revised edn, London 2000
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
More works by Sir Joshua Reynolds
Lady Anne, 2nd Countess of Albemarle, is approaching 60 in this portrait. She is the widow of William-Anne Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle, with whom she had 15 children, although only four sons and two daughters survived childhood. She holds a shuttle and is engaged in ‘knotting’ – a pastime invol...
This portrait shows Captain Robert Orme (1725–90) at the age of 31, during the war against the French for supremacy in the North American colonies. Reynolds painted it on speculation in the hope of selling it or displaying it to gain more work.Orme was aide-de-camp to General Edward Braddock, com...
Reynolds portrays Banastre Tarleton (1754–1833) aged 27, in action as commandant of the British Legion cavalry in the War of American Independence. Tarleton was famed for his reckless bravery and savagery, as well as for his vanity. He later became MP for Liverpool and defended the slave trade, o...
Not on display
General George Augustus Eliott, later Lord Heathfield (1770–90) defended the British territory of Gibraltar against a long siege by the Spanish and their French allies, which ended on 13 September 1782.Reynolds captures the moment of danger before the General’s triumph at Gibraltar. He holds a gi...
Not on display