When this portrait was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1779, an art critic decried Cosway’s “painful and minute attention to little Circumstances,” which gave his work “a coxcomical and ridiculous air.” Indeed, the painting does reveal Cosway’s minute attention to the furnishing of a fashionable, feminine interior, emphasizing such features as the dressing table bearing a pincushion, scent bottles, and powder puff. Cosway shows his sitter, the daughter of a British vice admiral, in informal morning dress, as though receiving an intimate visitor. The harp Miss Harland plays was closely associated with accomplished female amateurs, appearing, for example, in the work of Jane Austen.
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Credit Line:Gift of Mrs. William M. Haupt, from the collection of Mrs. James B. Haggin, 1969
Accession Number:69.104
Marianne Harland was the second daughter of Admiral Sir Robert Harland, first Baronet, of Sproughton Hall, Suffolk, and his second wife, née Susanna Reynolds, who wed in 1749. Marianne married William Dalrymple (1735–1807) in 1783 and died two years later, leaving a son, John William Henry Dalrymple (1784–1840), who eventually succeeded as seventh Earl of Stair. William, later Sir William, Dalrymple was promoted to the rank of general and in 1798 became lieutenant governor of London’s Chelsea Hospital.
In accordance with convention, Cosway exhibited Miss Harland’s portrait at the Royal Academy in 1779 under the title "A Lady Playing on the Harp." Stephen Lloyd (1995), who identified the present picture with the work shown at the academy exhibition, noted that the style fit “the fashionable but competitive market for precisely painted conversation pieces, a genre which was dominated by Zoffany.” The picture was described in the St. James Chronicle of May 1–4, 1779, as finished “with a painful and minute Attention to little Circumstances,” so that “a Bouquet of Flowers, or a Lady’s Ruffles, become the principal Object” (quoted in Lloyd 1995), a sensibility not unexpected in an artist primarily known as a portrait miniaturist. Although somewhat darkened over time, the picture is otherwise in good state.
A pendant (location unknown) depicts Marianne's elder sister, Frances, who in 1777 reportedly married Count Édouard Dillon, gentleman-in-waiting to the comte d’Artois, later Charles X of France. The two pendants descended in the family at Wherstead Park until 1914, when they were included in the Dashwood Heirlooms sale. In the catalogue entry, Countess Dillon is described as seated in an apartment, holding a letter, and wearing a blue lace-trimmed dress. The work was bought by Agnew’s for £325.10.0, a much lower sum than that fetched by the present picture.
[2010; adapted from Baetjer 2009]
the sitter's father, Admiral Sir Robert Harland, 1st Baronet, Sproughton Hall, Ipswich, Suffolk (until d. 1784); Sir Robert Harland, 2nd Baronet, Sproughton Hall and Wherstead Park, Ipswich, Suffolk (from 1784); by descent to Captain George Astley Charles Dashwood, Wherstead Park (until d. 1863); Charles Edmund Dashwood, Wherstead Park (1863–1914; Dashwood Heirlooms sale, Christie's, London, June 26, 1914, no. 94, as Miss Marianne Dorothy Harland [afterwards Mrs. Dalrymple], for £892.10 to Pollard); [Frederick Pollard, London, 1914–before d. 1916]; Mrs. W. S. Salting (until 1927; posthumous sale, Christie's, London, May 20, 1927, no. 44, for £651 to Tooth); [Arthur Tooth, London, from 1927]; [Daniel H. Farr, New York, in 1930]; Mrs. James B. (Margaret V.) Haggin, New York (until d. 1965); her sister, Mrs. William M. (Jean Amsden) Haupt, New York (1965–69)
London. Royal Academy. April 24–May 29, 1779, no. 58 (as "A ditto [lady] playing on the harp, small whole length," by Cosway).
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "English Paintings of the Eighteenth Century," November 8–December 1, 1930, no. 2 (lent by Daniel H. Farr Company).
Edinburgh. Scottish National Portrait Gallery. "Richard & Maria Cosway: Regency Artists of Taste and Fashion," August 11–October 22, 1995, no. 7.
London. National Portrait Gallery. "Richard & Maria Cosway: Regency Artists of Taste and Fashion," November 17, 1995–February 18, 1996, no. 7.
St. James's Chronicle (May 1–4, 1779), p. 4 [see Ref. Lloyd 1995].
Stephen Lloyd. Richard & Maria Cosway: Regency Artists of Taste and Fashion. Exh. cat., Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Edinburgh, 1995, pp. 33, 113, no. 7, colorpl. 30, identifies the picture with one of Cosway's 1779 Royal Academy exhibits, referred to in the St. James Chronicle for May 1–4; notes that it shows him working "in the fashionable but competitive market for precisely painted conversation pieces, a genre which was dominated by Zoffany".
Aileen Ribeiro inRichard & Maria Cosway: Regency Artists of Taste and Fashion. Exh. cat., Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Edinburgh, 1995, p. 102, points out that the depiction of the sitter, who wears a morning dress and a powdering mantle, may have been influenced by Gautier d'Agoty's gouache of Marie Antoinette in a similar pose (Versailles).
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 192, ill., as "Marianne Dorothy Harland (1759–1785), Later Mrs. William Dalrymple".
Gill Perry. Spectacular Flirtations: Viewing the Actress in British Art and Theatre 1768–1820. New Haven, 2007, p. 166, fig. 122.
Katharine Baetjer. British Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1575–1875. New York, 2009, pp. 145–46, no. 65, ill. (color).
Richard Cosway (British, Oakford, Devon 1742–1821 London)
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