The J. Paul Getty Museum

Portrait of William Anne Hollis, 4th Earl of Essex, Presenting a Cup to Thomas Clutterbuck of Watford

Object Details

Title:

Portrait of William Anne Hollis, 4th Earl of Essex, Presenting a Cup to Thomas Clutterbuck of Watford

Artist/Maker:

Thomas Gainsborough (English, 1727 - 1788)

Culture:

English

Date:

about 1784–1785

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Object Number:

72.PA.2

Dimensions:

146.1 × 173.4 cm (57 1/2 × 68 1/4 in.)

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Object Description

Thomas Gainsborough painted the fourth Earl of Essex presenting a silver cup to Thomas Clutterbuck, a member of a prominent local family and also sheriff of the English county of Hertfordshire. In a letter to Clutterbuck that originally accompanied the cup, the Earl of Essex expressed his gratitude and regard for his friend:

It has long been my inclination to give you a small token of the regard I have for you, and hope this Cup which I desire y[ou]r acceptance of, will be agre[e]able to you, & that you will consider it as a small token, or proof how much I think myself indebted to you, & of an esteem which I shall always retain.

In 1784, the Earl of Essex commissioned the painting by Gainsborough to commemorate the presentation of the cup, which had actually taken place twelve years earlier. He then gave the painting to Clutterbuck. The two families maintained close ties throughout the nineteenth century, and the silver cup is still in the Clutterbuck family's possession. The painting, although it was paid for by the earl, also remained with the family until the Getty Museum purchased it in 1972.

Provenance
Provenance
about 1784/1785 - 1792

Thomas Clutterbuck, 1744 - 1792 (Watford, Hertfordshire, England), commissioned by the Earl of Essex as a gift to Thomas Clutterbuck, about 1784/1785; by inheritance to Robert Clutterbuck I, 1792.

1792 - 1831

Robert Clutterbuck I, 1772 - 1831 (Watford, Hertfordshire, England), by inheritance to his son, Robert Clutterbuck II, 1831.

1831 - possibly 1880

Robert Clutterbuck II (Watford, Hertfordshire, England) [possibly unsold, Clutterbuck sale, Christie's, London, March 29, 1880, lot 116.], by inheritance within the Clutterbuck family, possibly 1880.

possibly 1880 - 1971

Clutterbuck Family (Watford, Hertfordshire, England), sold to Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., 1971.

1971 - 1972

Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd. (London, England), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1972.

Exhibitions
Exhibitions
The J. Paul Getty Collection (June 29 to September 3, 1972)
  • The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Minneapolis), June 29 to September 3, 1972
Fashionable Likeness: Pastel Portraits in 18th-Century Britain (November 1, 2016 to May 7, 2017)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles), November 1, 2016 to May 7, 2017
Bibliography
Bibliography

Christie, Manson & Woods, London. The Very Choice Collection of Modern Pictures of William Banbury, Esq. [...]; Also, Some Important Modern Pictures [...] and Some Important Portraits by Gainsborough, Reynolds, and Romney. May 29, 1880, p. 18, lot 116.

Armstrong, Walter. Gainsborough and His Place in English Art (London: William Heinemann, 1898), p. 195.

Fredericksen, Burton B. Catalogue of the Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1972), p. 101, no. 141.

The J. Paul Getty Collection, exh. cat. (Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1972), unpaginated, no. 29, ill.

Fredericksen, Burton B., ed. The J. Paul Getty Museum: Greek and Roman Antiquities, Western European Paintings, French Decorative Arts of the Eighteenth Century (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1975), pp. 71, 128, ill.

Fredericksen, Burton B., et al. Guidebook: The J. Paul Getty Museum. 3rd ed. (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1976), p. 69.

Fredericksen, Burton B., Jiří Frel, and Gillian Wilson. Guidebook: The J. Paul Getty Museum. 4th ed. Sandra Morgan, ed. (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1978), pp. 89, 91, ill.

Fredericksen, Burton B. Masterpieces of Painting in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1980), unpaginated, no. 48, ill.

Fredericksen, Burton B., Jiří Frel, and Gillian Wilson. The J. Paul Getty Museum Guidebook. 5th ed. (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1980), pp. 84, 85, ill.

Setford, David, et al. A Fair and Large House: Cassiobury Park, 1546-1927, exh. cat. (Watford: Watford Museum, 1985), p. 35.

Jaffé, David. Summary Catalogue of European Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1997), p. 47, ill.

Rosenthal, Michael. The Art of Thomas Gainsborough: "A Little Business for the Eye'" (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1999), pp. 53-54.

Hayes, John, ed. The Letters of Thomas Gainsborough (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 157, no. 95, ill.