Early Georgian Portraits Catalogue: Sterne
Laurence Sterne (1713-68)
Author and divine; son of army lieutenant Roger Sterne; [1] attended Jesus College, Cambridge; held the living of Sutton, Yorks, and other church preferments, 1738-59, including prebendary of York Cathedral; married, 1741, Elizabeth Lumley [2] who suffered bouts of insanity; Tristram Shandy (vols I and II) published in York 1759 and London, 1760; carried on flirtation and correspondence, 1759, with Mlle Fourmantelle ('dear, dear Kitty'); visited London and well received in society; in the same year made perpetual curate of Coxwold naming his house there Shandy Hall; visited France, 1762-64; in England 1767, met and corresponded with Mrs Eliza Draper, the 'Bramine' [3] of Journal to Eliza; A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy,published 1768; died insolvent, of pleurisy, his wife and daughter aided through subscriptions collected by his life-long friend John Hall-Stevenson and by further publication of his sermons, 1769, and Letters of Yorick to Eliza,1775.
5019 By Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1760
Oil on canvas, 50 1/8 x 39 ½ in. (1273 x 1004 mm); dark brown eyes, white wig slightly askew, pale complexion; white shirt and cuffs, black gown, knee breeches and stockings; a small ring on the fifth finger on his left hand; on the table a silver standish, quill pen and sheaf of writing paper, the uppermost lettered and [opin]ions/ [o]f / Tristram Shandy; [4]red tablecloth, red curtain drawn back behind his left arm, plain brown background; lit from left.
Signed and dated on a paper inserted into the sheaf: J Reynolds / pinxt / 1760;inscribed in yellow, bottom right, Laurence Sterne. On the back of the stretcher are the labels of the following exhibitions: NPE 1867; Grosvenor Galleries 1889; Guelph, 1891; RA 1934,1968/9.
Sterne sat to Reynolds on the 20, 25, 29 March, 3 and 6 April, 1760. Other entries occur in the 'sitter-books' on 11June 1764, and in 1768, on 23 February and 1 March. By early March, Sterne was so ill he was confined to bed; he died on 18 March. The only autograph version known is NPG 5019. Nothing else approaches it in quality. A 30 x 25 with the papers inscribed [S]entimental Journey instead of Tristram Shandy was in the Asher Wertheimer sale, Christie's, 18 June 1920, lot 48. According to the sale catalogue this was the portrait lent by Mrs Whatman to the Guelph exhibition 1891 (305) where it was stated to have been given by the sitter to Edward Stanley [5] who bequeathed it to his son-in-law, James Whatman of Vinters (sic) near Maidstone. The inscription, if coeval with the paint, would place the work not earlier than c.1768.The handling suggests an early copy rather than the studio. No connection between Sterne and Stanley has been substantiated.
A number of copies exist, including one now in Canada attributed to Northcote lent to the 'Portraits of Yorkshire Worthies' exhibition, Leeds 1868 (3179). Others are at the City Art Gallery, York [6]; Jesus College, Cambridge; in a British private collection, and a weak example bought at the Earl of Lonsdale's sale, 1887, is in the National Gallery, Dublin. A miniature reproduced by Curtis when in the collection of S.J. Pegg, c.1934,appears to be a derivative of the Reynolds, perhaps, on stylistic considerations, painted c.1800. [7]An enamel copy by Bone was made in 1814, his preparatory squared drawing being in his sketchbooks in the NPG library.
NPG 5019 was probably finished in the spring of 1760. Gray's letter to Wharton, 22 April 1760, refers to the portrait 'done by Reynolds, and now engraving'. [8] The engraving is likely to be the undated mezzotint by Fisher; the first dated engraving is that by Ravenet, published as the frontispiece to the Sermons that May.
Conflicting accounts of the origin of NPG 5019 occur. It is not known to have been a commissioned work. There are no payments for a portrait of Sterne in Reynolds' ledgers, only for engravings. Leslie & Taylor's statement that it was painted for the Earl of Upper Ossory seems improbable. By 1801 he is the first recorded owner (see Collections). Later in life, he was certainly a friend of Reynolds who bequeathed him the choice of a picture. [9] He bought two portraits and three subject pictures in the 1796 sale. [10] But no connection with Reynolds is known before Ossory sat to him in 1767. Ossory was not quite sixteen when NPG 5019 was painted. Equally the belief that it was painted for the sitter has not been established; the letter attributed to Sterne, [11] stating that it was given him by the artist, is now regarded as another of the forgeries of William Combe (1741-1823). Little information is available about the early movements of the portrait. Reynolds would presumably have himself sent it to the two Society of Artists' exhibitions in 1761 and 1768, while Bath's letter to Mrs Montagu (seeabove, Bath, NPG 337) suggests that it was in his studio at the end of 1761. The sitter's absence abroad, illness and death could well have prevented delivery, if the portrait was destined for him. It is doubtful whether Sterne would have been sufficiently solvent to pay for such a portrait though a similar consideration did not prevent Reynolds painting Boswell.
The question can only remain open, but the known facts do not prevent the hypothesis that Reynolds might well have painted it as a speculation and may have been prepared to take a financial risk with an eye to publicity. 'Half length of Dr. Sterne' was after all the first portrait he exhibited under the sitter's name; [12] the next was the famous Garrick between Tragedy and Comedy 1762—and Sterne in 1760 with the first two volumes of Tristram out, was the literary lion of the moment.
Condition:good, though generally now a little thin; a small passage out of key in the centre of the wig (due to loss of varnish?); the picture was received too late for a thorough technical examination.
Collections:bought, 1975, from Lady Mersey, through Messrs Agnew with the aid of an anonymous benefactor, grants from the National Art-Collections Fund, the Pilgrim Trust, HM Government, and the result of a public appeal. The portrait seems first to be mentioned at Ampthill in the collection of John, 2nd Earl of Upper Ossory in 1801; [13] the date and source of its acquisition is evidently not available, but it was probably not before 1782 when Pennant mentions other pictures in the house, but not the Sterne. [14] Ossory died in 1823 and Ampthill passed to his nephew the 3rd Baron Holland. [15] NPG 5019 was bought from his widow in 1840 by the 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne, [16] thence by descent.
Engraved: by E. Fisher (O'D 1) and S.F. Ravenet as frontispiece to the Sermons, 1760. (For a fuller list, seeO'Donoghue).
Exhibited:Society of Artists 1761 (82) and 1768 (97), special exhibition for the King of Denmark; British Institution 1813 (99), 1823 (18) and 1841 (83); NPE 1867 (373); RA 1871 (36); Grosvenor Gallery 1889 (65); 'Royal House of Guelph', New Gallery 1891 (207); 'A Century of British Art', Grafton Gallery, National Gallery Fund Exhibition, 1910 (57); RA 'British Art' 1934 (185), and the Bicentenary Exhibition, 1968 (112).
2785 By (?) Louis de Carmontelle, c.1762
Water colours on paper, 10 3/8 x 6 7/8 in. (263 x 174 mm), laid down on a modern mount, black rule round edge; high forehead, sharp nose, sunken cheek, rather pale complexion, white wig; black coat with matching waistcoat and breeches, grey stockings and buckled shoes; standing on a roof(?) terrace, leaning on the back of a chair; pink houses, blue trees and a large cupola and a mediaeval(?) tower in the near background, blue sky shading to white beyond; strong shadows cast from the left.
The architecture has not been identified. Although at first sight it would appear to suggest mediaeval and seventeenth-century buildings in Paris, no connection with specific buildings can be established. If Paris is intended, the Sorbonne which Sterne visited would be appropriate, but the artist may have meant a fanciful, inaccurate reference to London—St Paul's or the Tower. [17]
Louis Carrogis, who styled himself Louis de Carmontelle, was the son of a maître cordonnier who kept a shop in Paris. By 1762 he was in the household of Louis Philippe duc d'Orléans (1725-85) and was reader to his son Louis Philippe Joseph, duc de Chartres. Born in 1747, the latter (Philippe 'Egalité') succeeded his father as duc d'Orléans in 1785, and was executed by the Revolutionaries in 1793. Carmontelle, author of the Proverbes dramatiques,was a water colourist of considerable ability, and produced, from 1757, some hundreds of small whole length portraits of the Orleans circle. Grimm writes on 1 May 1763 that for several years Carmontelle had been making a collection of chalk and wash drawings, which he took with astonishing facility in two hours. [18] He adds that the collection grew day by day.
Though his work varies widely in quality, at his best Carmontelle could hold his own with his professional compatriots, and, as Grimm remarked, had an unusual knack for catching likeness. [19] The British Museum acquired from Colnaghi’s in 1904, four fine drawings, including Mde de Vermenoux. [20]Less satisfactory, and probably a repetition—several versions are known—is the child Mozart, with his father and sister, on loan there from the National Gallery. [21] Though more has yet to be learned of Carmontelle, NPG 2785 appears to be of about the same quality and dimensions as the Sterne at Chantilly (below), though not as well preserved. It would be rash to exclude either from his oeuvre.
Sterne certainly sat. He wrote to David Garrick from Paris, 19 March 1762: ‘The Duke of Orleans has suffered my portrait to be added to the number of some odd men in his collection; and a gentleman who lives with him has taken it most expressively, at full length—I purpose to obtain an etching of it, and to send it you . . .’ [22] No contemporary etching of the Sterne is known, it not being among the twenty-seven subjects by Carmontelle that were engraved. [23]
It appears that Foley, his banker in Paris, had a portrait of which he was trying to obtain a copy. On 5 October 1763 Sterne wrote to Foley from Montpellier: 'I believe I shall beg leave to get a copy of my own [picture] from yours, when I come in propria persona' and again, writing from York, 11 November 1764, he asks, 'is it possible for you to get me over a Copy of my picture anyhow? —If so I would write to Mlle Navarre to make as good a Copy from it as She possibly could—with a view to do her Service here—& I wd remit her 5 Louis—I really believe, twil be the parent of a dozen portraits to her—if she executes it with the spirit of the Original in yr hands—for it will be seen by half London—and as my Phyz—is as remarkable as myself—if she preserves the [Spirit] Character of both, 'twil do her honour & service too'. [24] Curtis thought Navarre might be a mis-spelling and that she could be a daughter or sister of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810), maître de ballet, inventor of the ballet pantomime and a favourite at the court of Frederick of Prussia. [25] Cash, however, who connects the reference on no very conclusive evidence with NPG 2022 (below), suggests more convincingly Mlle Geneviève Navarre (fl.1761-76), [26] a pastel painter and miniaturist residing in the Rue Beaurepaire, Paris. [27] Mlle Navarre is not one of those known to have engraved after Carmontelle and does not seem to be recorded as an engraver. An engraving might best fit the context of the correspondence. Neither Foley's portrait, nor the copy, if made, has ever been identified, and the question remains open. Foley is not known to have been of Orleans' circle. All that can be said in favour of identifying Foley's portrait as a Carmontelle, is that it was in France and the small sum of 5 Louis [28] would be appropriate for a minor work like a drawing or engraving, but not for an oil. On the other hand Carmontelle is not likely to have had a studio and would probably have been responsible for his own repetitions.
Two versions are at present known, NPG 2785 and an almost identical one acquired by the younger Orleans' grandson, the duc d'Aumale, for Chantilly. [29] The bulk of Carmontelle's drawings did not pass to the younger Orleans, who was guillotined in 1793, but remained with the artist. As Davies points out, Carmontelle kept nearly all of them, [30] only occasionally giving one away, though some were said to have been sold at the time of the Revolution. The 750 drawings in his posthumous sale, Paris, 17 April 1807 [31] were bought by Richard Lédans. His 1807 inventory at Chantilly does not include Sterne.
The Chantilly version was purchased from the Edward Cheney sale, Sotheby's, 29 April 1885, lot 293. This was probably from the collection of La Mésangère, the publisher of the Journal des Dames, since the mount [32] is of the type he used to remount the surviving bloc of Carmontelle's drawings, which he owned 1816-31. These he had bought from Lédans. [33] However, since there is no Sterne in the 1807 inventory, it is not known whether Lédans obtained it later, or whether La Mésangère acquired it from another source.
Condition:good.
Collections:bought 1935, from Paul Wallraf, Paris; from the collection of H.E. Powell, and at some time with Colnaghi’s; early history unknown.
1891 By Joseph Nollekens, c.1766
White marble bust, 15 ½ in. (394 mm) high, excluding socle; pupils incised, eyebrows faint and low over eyes, prominent nose, slightly receding chin, curly hair brushed forward half covering his ears and falling well down the nape of his neck; bare neck and shoulders.
Incised on the back shaft STERNE.
As a young man Nollekens was in Rome 1760-70. The bust would thus have been taken during the winter of 1765-66 when Sterne was in Italy. He is known to have been in Florence by 18 December [34] travelling thence to Naples and to Rome which he visited during 11-25 January and March to 5-17 April. [35] Judging from later works exhibited in 1770, [36] Nollekens' 'busto of the Rev Dr Stern' at the Free Society of Artists, 1767 (309), was probably a plaster rather than terracotta or marble. He gave a plaster cast in 1790 to the Negro poet Ignatius Sancho, [37] sometime butler to the Duke of Montague and a friend of Sterne, but it is not known if this is the one exhibited in 1767. Nollekens always regarded his portrait of Sterne as one of his best and evidently retained the terracotta which was bought at his posthumous sale, Christie's, 3-5 July 1823, by Agar Ellis. A marble in the same sale bought by Mrs (Russell) Palmer for £60.18s. [38] was purchased at her sale, Christie's, 23 March 1847, by Graves for £38.17s. Lot 266, according to Scharf's notes in the catalogue of the Francis Broderip sale, Christie's, 7 February 1872, 2nd day, was incised STERNE as in NPG 1891 (seeCollections) and was the same bust as that 'bt by Mrs Russell for £60 at Nollekens . . .'. [39]
Sterne died before the sculptor's return to England and the only contemporary evidence of a marble produced in Rome is the not entirely reliable advertisement placed in the Public Advertiser, 12 February 1771, by Sterne's friend the printer Thomas Becket (1722?-1813) announcing busts of Sterne 'ready to deliver . . . done from a Marble one which he sat to at Rome, executed by the famous Noliken'. Examples in 'plain Plaister' were offered for one guinea and six shillings more 'if done in Imitation of Marble, or bronzed'. [40] Marble versions include one at the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery acquired, 1924, through the Anderson Galleries, New York, formerly Taunton heirlooms sale, Quantock Lodge; [41] others were at Christie's, c.1928, from the Yarborough collection, said to be the bust taken in Rome; [42] at Skelton Castle descended from Sterne's friend John Hall-Stevenson to Mrs W. Ringrose-Wharton; at the Manchester exhibition 1857 (112) lent by the Rt Hon. H. Labouchère; at Christie's, 1 February 1923 (44), catalogued as Addison from the collection of Sir J.G. Thorold, Bart of Syston Park, Grantham and at Sotheby's c.1965, later with Robert Lee. An engraving by J. Caldwall after the portrait by Benjamin West shows the sitter's daughter Lydia (de Medalle) holding a laurel wreath over a bust of her father which is apparently based on Nollekens.
Condition:slight flaws or losses in the hair above his left temple, in his left eyebrow and cheek.
Collections:given, 1920, through the National Art Collections Fund by Lt-Col. Croft-Lyons by whom acquired, on Milner's recommendation, [43] from Amor of St James's Street; possibly the marble, similarly incised, at the Broderip sale 1872 (seeabove) and if so, from the artist's collection.
Engraved:by James Caldwell (O'D 1, under Medalle) with Lydia Sterne for the 1775 edition of his Letters.
Exhibited:'The First Hundred Years of the Royal Academy 1769-1868', RA, 1951-52 (25).
2022 By an unknown artist
Oil on canvas, 17 1/8 x 13 5/8 in. (435 x 346 mm); dark eyes, brown eyebrows, sunken cheeks, pallid complexion, grey wig; white neck-band, black coat and waistcoat unbuttoned, pale pink under-garment, black breeches; seated in pink damask chair at the foot of a stairway(?), behind him two doors, the further one open, and on the grey wall, left, a plaque with classical male head facing right lettered RA[BL]AIS below.
Identification rests on comparison with authentic likenesses and is strengthened by the allusion to Rabelais. This also suggests an approximate terminus, the appearance of the first volume of Tristram Shandy in 1760 leading Warburton to compare the two authors. [44] The painter is not known but the hand, like the interior, appears to be English. The chair too, despite the unusual feature of material on the arm-rest supports, is surely English—or just possibly American colonial. [45] The portrait was painted presumably late in life when, after years of ill health, Sterne had become permanently weakened by haemorrhages of the lungs. The perspective of the background is well drawn but the figure is out of proportion and suggests an artist who did not normally paint portraits. A unique mezzotint in the Berg collection, New York Public Library, on paper probably made by 1780, [46] bears neither the artist's nor the engraver's name.
Condition:rather thin particularly around the jaw and in two small losses above the knee where green ground(?) shows through; pin holes at corners.
Collections:bought, 1924, from A. Morrison who believed it to be by Hogarth when he purchased it, with a reputed Constable, at a sale in the area of Swiss Cottage. [47]
Engraved:A unique mezzotint in the Berg collection, New York Public Library (seeabove).
Literature: Letters of the late Rev. Mr. Laurence Sterne,new edition, 1776; W. Hayley, Life of George Romney,1809; Drawings by Henry Bone, MS, working drawings, NPG library; W. Cotton, Sir Joshua Reynolds and his Works, ed. J. Burnet, 1856; Catalogue of Pictures Belonging to the Marquess of Lansdowne,1897; F.A. Gruyer, Chantilly: Les Portraits de Carmontelle, 1902; W.L. Cross, The Life and Times of Laurence Sterne,New York, 1909; W. Sichel, Sterne. A Study, 1910 (annotated copy in NPGlibrary); J.T. Smith, Nollekens and his Times,ed. W.Whitten, 1920; Letters of Laurence Sterne,ed. L.P. Curtis, 1935; F.J.B. Watson, Thomas Patch (1725-1782), Walpole Society, XXVIII, 1940; [Sir] Martin Davies, French School (National Gallery Catalogues),2nd edition, 1957; G.L. Lee, The Story of the Bosanquets,1966.
Only works cited in the text are mentioned here, but among the interesting accounts may be cited Mrs Jameson, Private Galleries,1844, p.330; Leslie and Taylor, I, pp.192-93, and William Whitley, Artists and Their Friends in England 1700-1799, 1928, I, p.175.
Appearance
Describing himself at work 'this 12th day of August 1766', Sterne writes: 'And here am I sitting . . . in a purple jerkin and yellow pair of slippers, without either wig or cap on.' [48]
Iconography
The earliest extant portrait is likely to be the rough oil now known from the engraving 'Thos Bridges and Lawrence Sterne, as Mountebanks' by C.J. Smith, published 1838 in Dibdin's Bibliographical, Antiquarian, and Picturesque Tour in the North Counties of England and Scotland. [49]Each apparently painted the other; Sterne who had some skill as an amateur artist [50] depicted his friend as a quack doctor. His 'Memorandums' dated 28 December 1761 'left with Mrs Montague, In Case I should die abroad' simply refer to 'The 2 Pictures of the Mountebank & his Macaroni'. [51] Thomas Bridges (fl.1759-75) who was in London by 1760 to begin his brief career as a hack comic writer had been active in York in the late 1740s. The original painting when seen by Dibdin in 1820 was in the possession of Dr James Atkinson, the York surgeon. [52] A portrait by Christopher ‘Count' [53] Steele (b.1730), Romney's painting master in York to whom Sterne sat c.1765, [54] is now lost.
After Reynolds' portrait of 1760, Sterne was drawn by Carmontelle in 1762 (seeNPG 2785 above) and a miniature by an unknown artist sent to his wife in 1762 is mentioned in a letter from Paris dated May 12 addressed to Thomas Becket, publisher of volumes V and VI of Tristram Shandy. 'Mr Tollet the Gentleman who does me the favour to deliver You this—will give you two Snuff Boxes—they are of Value—in one is my Portrait, don[e] here' ,writes Sterne, and proceeds to give directions for their despatch to Mrs Sterne 'by the first York Stage coach (with Care)'. [55] Charles Tollet (1726-96), [56] a friend of Sterne's, presumably carried out the commission for in the following month the sitter writes to his wife that 'if I was not sure you must have long since got my picture . . . I would write and scold Mr. T[ollet] abominably'. [57] In September 1768, in correspondence with Becket over settlement of the estate, Sterne's daughter Lydia wrote: '—the account I believe stands thus that is supposing my uncle Mr Botham has paid into your hands the ten Guineas he recd for my Fathers picture'. [58] This might be a reference to the miniature whose present whereabouts is not known.
Thomas Patch painted Sterne in Florence in December 1765. The original, now at Jesus College, Cambridge, formerly in the collection of J.A. Henderson of Mamhead Grange, Exeter, was possibly owned by Sir William Fitzherbert, Bart, of Tissington, Derbyshire, for whom Patch painted c.1768 ‘The Music Lesson' which included portraits of himself and Fitzherbert. [59] A portrait of some kind, perhaps a gift from the sitter, was evidently owned by Mrs Draper by 1767. Writing to her possibly in March, Sterne records: 'And so thou hast fixed thy Bramin's portrait over thy writing-desk; and will consult it in all doubts and difficulties.—Grateful and good girl! Yorick smiles contentedly over all thou dost; his picture does not do justice to his own complacency! [60] This portrait was perhaps one of the ten impressions of the mezzotint for which Sterne paid Reynolds about this time—a convenient and comparatively inexpensive means for authors to provide their admirers with an image. 'Sterne and Death' by Patch and the artist's somewhat different engraving, reversed, show Sterne bowing to the figure of Death. A similar engraving lettered Dr. Sterne alias Tristram Shandy, signed and dated 1769, is usually associated with the twenty-five caricatures (no.20) by Patch bound up at the end of the life of Masaccio. [61] Another engraving after the same portrait is inscribed Patch Pinx.et Sculp. Floren [62] A print endorsed in Walpole's hand is in the possession of W.S. Lewis, Farmington, Connecticut. The bust by Nollekens was taken in Rome 1766 (seeNPG 1891 above). A portrait attributed to Lawrence Holme was exhibited at the British Institution 1857 (128), lent by Beriah Botfield. Professor Cash believes that this is the copy of the Reynolds now at Jesus College, Cambridge. [63]
DOUBTFUL PORTRAITS
An oil ascribed to Gainsborough, at Christie's, 14 April 1864, in the posthumous sale of Thomas Turton, Bishop of Ely, appears wrongly named. Drawings in chalk called Sterne and his wife attributed to Francis Cotes, last noted in the possession of C.H. Plimpton, New York City, [64] were equated with the portraits seen in the collection of Mr Porter, a bookseller in Boston, Lincs, by Nathaniel Hawthorne and mentioned in his Pilgrimage to Old Boston. [65] No other evidence is known to confirm either the identity of the sitters or the artist who might conceivably be Samuel Cotes, younger brother of Francis. [66] The portrait catalogued 'Sterne by Steele', Christie's, 7 June 1912, lot 60, was published as frontispiece to Sichel's Sterne. A Study when in the collection of J.B. Wirgman. It was not there stated to be by this artist and does not appear to represent the sitter. A so-called death mask, apparently based on the Nollekens bust, is in Princeton University Library.
Notes
1. The original of 'Uncle Toby'.
2. His courtship letters, 1739-46, used for first time ‘sentimental' to denote the tender emotions, DNB, XVIII, p.1088.
3. An allusion to her Indian connections; MS of Journal in BM.
4. The first line is very uncertain, but was probably as in Fisher's mezzotint: [Lif]e and opinions / of Tristram Shandy. The title page of the first edition was The Life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.
5. Sarah, eldest daughter of Edward Stanley (d.1789), cousin of the Earl of Derby and secretary to the Board of Customs, married, 1769, James Whatman I (d.1798), proprietor of the celebrated Turkey paper mills. Whatman's second wife was Susannah Bosanquet who was painted by Romney, 1782; CS sub J. Watson (153); Gentleman's Magazine, vol. 59, 1789, part 1, p.88; Ward and Roberts, II, p.170; Lee, p.103; Curtis, p.284, note 2.
6. Catalogue of Paintings, II, 1963, p.74.
7. Reproduced Curtis, opposite p.304.
8. Curtis, p.106, note 2.
9. Reynolds' will, 1792, PRO Prob. 11/1215.
10. Greenwood, 14-16 April 1796, lots 17, 21, 25, 44, second day, and lot 73, third day.
11. 'You must mention the business to Reynolds himself; for I will tell you why I cannot. He has already painted a very excellent portrait of me, which, when I went to pay him for, he desired me to accept as a tribute (to use his own elegant and flattering expression) that his heart wished to pay to my genius', cited Leslie and Taylor, I, p.193, note 1, now discredited by Prof. A. Cash.
12. Society of Artists, 1761 (82).
13. Beauties, I, p.65.
14. T. Pennant, The Journey from Chester to London, 1782, pp.378-80.
15. GEC XII, pt 2, p.195, note c.
16. Lansdowne catalogue, p.85.
17. I am grateful to Miss Elspeth Evans for discussing the architecture of Paris. The closest parallel, Harrods, can be ruled out!
18. Cited Gruyer, p.ii.
19. ‘il a le talent de saisir singulièrement l'air, le maintien, l'esprit de la figure', cited Gruyer, loc. cit.
20. BM Prints & Drawings, 1904.6.14.2-5. Le Courreur de St. Cloud, 1904.6.14.3 was exhibited 'Portrait Drawings XV-XX Centuries', British Museum, 1974 (300).
21. NG 2911, Davies, pp.22-23.
22. Curtis, pp.157-58.
23. Gruyer, p.ii, note 2 gives a list naming the engravers. However, on the back of the Chantilly version there is an inscription, probably in an 18th-century hand, according to Miss Evans: 'Une planche même grandeur pour faire imprimer en couleurs,' suggesting that an engraving was intended.
24. Curtis, pp.202, 230-31.
25. Ibid, p.232, note 5.
26. Verbally. Thieme-Becker, XXV, p.363.
27. A member of the Académie of Saint-Luc, she was registered, 29 October 1764, a master painter of the corporation of Paris—G. Wildenstein, Melanges, II, 1925-26, p.202; Livrets des Expositions de l'Académie de Saint-luc, Paris, 1872, pp.11, 136, 160—references kindly communicated by Prof. A. Cash.
28. In 1717 the legal value of the Louis d'or was fixed at 17s, OED.
29. 'Laurence Sterne, when a resident in Paris—in water colours' was lot 536 of the sale of the 'well-known connoisseur' J.B. Jarman whose collection of 16th-18th century portraits and miniatures was sold at Christie's, 20 May 1859, 4th day. It was the only Carmontelle in the sale. It is not known whether this is either of the two extant versions, or a third one.
30. Davies, p.23, for their descent.
31. Lugt, 7223.
32. The Carmontelle of Hume recently purchased for the Scottish NPG from Sotheby's, 21 November 1974, lot 117, has a similar mount.
33. Regnault, 3-18 December 1816, Lugt 9004. For La Mésangère's sale, seeLugt 12727.
34. Curtis, pp.265-66, citing letter from Sterne to Isaac Panchaud of Foley & Panchaud, Paris bankers.
35. Curtis, p.272 and notes of Prof. A. Cash.
36. 'A model—the portrait of a gentleman' (189), 'A marble busto—the portrait of a gentleman' (190), ‘Paris—from the antique; a model in terra cotta' (191).
37. Smith, I, pp.25-27.
38. Ibid, p.8.
39. Catalogue in NPG archives and letter from Mr Woods of Christie's, 3 February 1872.
40. Prof. A. Cash, correspondence 1973.
41. Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, correspondence 1973, NPG archives.
42. DNB, XVIII, p.1103.
43. His MS note in NPG library copy of Sterne, A Study by W. Sichel.
44. Lewis, 15, (Dalrymple), p.67 and note 12, recording Walpole's letter to Sir David Dalrymple on 4 April 1760, 'Warburton . . . recommended the book to the bench of bishops, and told them that Mr. Sterne, the author, was the English Rabelais—they had never heard of such a writer.'
45. Letter, 1973, from P. Thornton, Keeper, Department of Furniture and Woodwork, V & A, NPG archives.
46. Prof. A. Hazen's opinion, communicated by Prof. A. Cash.
47. Mr Morrison was unable to provide the auctioneer's name or other information, correspondence 1930, NPG archives.
48. Curtis, p.285, note 2, citing Tristram Shandy, III, p.154.
49. Ibid, p.59 and note 7, suggesting Dibdin may be in error and that Bridges is perhaps the Rev. Joseph Bridges, sub-chanter of York.
50. 'According as the fly stung', Sterne records, he sought relaxation 'in books, painting and fiddling'; although 'chiefly copying portraits', he apparently had 'a good idea of drawing but not the least of mixing colours', DNB, XVIII, p.1090.
51. Curtis, pp.146-48 and note 11; Sterne says the two pictures ‘. . . is in a lady's hands . . .‘.
52. DNB, XVIII, p.1090; also notes of Prof. A. Cash.
53. So styled for his extravagant dress. For a portrait wrongly identified seebelow, Doubtful Portraits.
54. Hayley, pp.26-27.
55. Curtis, pp. 166-67 and note 1.
56. Ibid, p.169, note 10.
57. Ibid, p.176.
58. Ibid, p.441.
59. Watson, p.36.
60. Curtis, p.305.
61. Watson, pp.44-45.
62. Watson, p.47; Sterne was in Florence only 6 days.
63. Although called a 'bust' in the catalogue, all the items exhibited were old master paintings. 'Bust' presumably means a head and shoulders oil. The dimensions of Botfield's portrait of Sterne were, however: H. 5 ft. 5 ½ in. W. 4 ft. 8 in., according to his Catalogue of Pictures in the Possession of Beriah Botfield, Esq. at Norton Hall, 1848.
64. Cross, xx-xxi.
65. N. Hawthorne, Our Old Home, I, 1863, pp.260-61.
66. Cash gives a more extensive list of doubtful and wrongly named portraits.