Lady Jane Tollemache, Lady John Halliday (1750 - 1802)
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Full-length oil portrait of Lady Jane Tollemache Halliday. To the right of centre, Jane steps forward with her right leg, holds her skirts with her right hand, and throws out her left. She looks towards the left. Her gold low-cut, puff-sleeved dress, trimmed with blue ribbons and a sash, blows in the wind showing her classical-style sandals. Behind her is a windswept cloudy sky, meadows and trees.
Joshua Reynolds developed a daring pose to depict Lady Jane Tollemache, the youngest daughter of the 4th Earl of Dysart and Lady Grace Carteret. Jane is positioned off-centre, as if she is walking out of the frame, emphasising the movement of the wind, hair and drapery. These details were much criticised when the portrait was shown at the Royal Academy exhibition in 1779.
Jane's first husband was John Delap Halliday of Leasowes, Shropshire, whom she married on 23 October 1771. He was the son of a rich Scottish planter in the Caribbean and was a major in the army. It has been suggested that the background is a composite of the landscape around the Leasowes estate in Shropshire, also known for its high winds, but Reynolds may have simply used the device to add drama to his composition.
The composition may be a flamboyant reworking of an earlier portrait, 'Mrs Hale as "Euphosyne"' (Harewood House) that was loosely based on a print of Raphael's 'St Margaret'. The dramatic pose does make this portrait close to Reynolds's subject paintings which depict characters from history or mythology. A good example is Reynolds's 'Thais' which Ferdinand de Rothschild also bought from the Tollemache family (acc. no. 2556).
Reynolds's innovations were not always appreciated by his contemporaries. When the painting was displayed in public at the Royal Academy exhibition in 1779, one critic wrote: 'No 250 is a lady in a storm, her hair blows one way, and her neck ornaments the contrary, and the neck swells out too much on the left side'. Another wrote 'We do not know why this lady should choose to be drawn in a high wind, as it does not discover anything formed by the Graces'.
Phillippa Plock, 2011
Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)
2389 x 1475
Signature & date
not signed or dated
Marks
F. REEDHAM / LINER
Stamp
verso, upper part of vertical stretcher, punched into
Inscriptions
165 / H
Inscription
verso, on frame, chalk
P 4
Inscription
verso, on upper stretcher, chalk
No 1
Inscription
verso, on upper stretcher, pencil
No 17
Inscription
verso, on top of label on central vertical stretcher, ink
Labels
[Royal Academy Label 1934] Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA / Lady Jane Halliday / James A E de Rothschild Esq MP / Waddesdon Manor / Bucks
Label
verso, on frame
Ex / of / Ant Treasures / 1857 / John Tollemache Esq MP Proprietor
Label
verso, central vertical stretcher, pink label
Provenance
- Commissioned by the sitter's brother Wilbraham Tollemache, later 6th Earl of Dysart (b.1739, d.1821) in 1778-79, paid for in 1780, 150 guineas; inherited by his nephew, the sitter's son, Admiral John Richard Delap Tollemache (b.1772, d.1837); by descent to his son 1st Baron John Tollemache of Helmingham (b.1805, d.1890); sold by John Tollemache to Wertheimer in 1888; bought from Wertheimer by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in 1888 (b.1839, d.1898); inherited by his sister Alice de Rothschild (b.1847, d.1922); inherited by her great-nephew James de Rothschild (b.1878, d.1957).
Exhibition history
- British Institute, 1817, London, no. 108 lent Earl of Dysart
- British Institute, 1841, London, no. 76 lent John Tollemache
- Art Treasures of Britian, 1857, Manchester, no. 59 lent John Tollemache
- Royal Academy Exhibition, 1934, London, no. 165 (no. 144 in the Memorial Catalogue) lent James A. de Rothschild
Collection
- Waddesdon (National Trust)
- Bequest of James de Rothschild, 1957
Bibliography
- Algernon Graves, William Vine Cronin; A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds; 4 vols; London; Henry Graves; 1899-1901; vol. 2, p. 417.
- Ellis Waterhouse; Reynolds; London; Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd.,; 1941; p. 70, pl. 213.
- ♦; Sir Francis Watson, The Art Collections at Waddesdon Manor I: The Paintings, Apollo, 69, June 1959, 172-182; p. 175, fig. 10.
- Ellis Waterhouse, The English Pictures at Waddesdon Manor, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 54, August 1959, 49-56; p. 55.
- Ellis Waterhouse, Anthony Blunt; Paintings: The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor; Fribourg; Office du Livre, The National Trust; 1967; p. 76, ill.
- Malcolm Cormack, The Ledgers of Sir Joshua Reynolds, The Walpole Society, 42, 1968-1970, 105-69; p. 155.
- Jean-Jacques Mayoux; La Peinture Anglaise de Hogarth au Préraphaélites; Geneva; Skira; 1972; p. 45, ill.
- Andrew Wilton; The Swagger Portrait: Grand Manner Portraiture in Britain From Van Dyck to Augustus John; Tate Gallery, London, 14 October 1992 - 10 January 1993; London; The Tate Gallery Publications; 1992; p. 134.
- Martin Postle, Reynolds's Portraits at Waddesdon Manor: Painting for Posterity, Apollo, 139, 1994, 19-33; p. 23, pl. 1.
- Treasures from The National Trust; London; The National Trust; 2007; p. 264.
- Laura Houliston; The Suffolk Collection: 400 Years of Family Paintings; London; English Heritage; 2012; ill.
- Christopher Rowell; Ham House: 400 Years of Collecting and Patronage; New Haven, London; Yale University Press; 2013; p.368, fig. 374.
- Mark Hallett; Joshua Reynolds: Portraiture in Action; New Haven; Yale University Press; 2014; p. 252, fig. 263.
Related files
- http://www.zipworld.com.au/~lnbdds/home/tollemachecartoon.htm [accessed 8 July 2009, on identification of women in Gillray cartoon]
- http://www.zipworld.com.au/~lnbdds/home/tollemachecartoon.htm [accessed 8 July 2009, on identification of women in Gillray cartoon]
Subject person
- Lady Jane Tollemache Halliday, Sitter