Anne Elizabeth Cholmley (1769–1788), Later Lady Mulgrave

Gainsborough Dupont was apprenticed in 1772 to his uncle, Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788), and moved with the Gainsborough family from Bath to London in 1774, entering the Royal Academy schools the following year. He remained in his uncle's studio until the latter's death; as an independent painter, he exhibited at the Royal Academy, was employed by George III, and painted theatrical portraits.

Anne Elizabeth Cholmley was the daughter of Nathaniel Cholmley, member of Parliament for Howsham and Whitby. In 1787, she married Constantine John Phipps (1744–1792), second Baron Mulgrave, of the Royal Navy, who was twenty-five years her senior. She died in childbirth the following year, leaving a daughter, Anne Elizabeth Cholmley Phipps.

This is a small studio replica by Dupont of Gainsborough’s portrait of Miss Cholmley (location unknown), which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1785. Ellis Waterhouse (1953) noted that The Met's work was "certainly not by Gainsborough." John Hayes first attributed the picture to Dupont in 1964, an opinion he reaffirmed in 1990. Hugh Belsey accepted the attribution to Dupont in 1991 (unpublished opinions recorded in departmental files).

[2010; adapted from Baetjer 2009]

George Jay Gould, New York (by 1898–at least 1899, as by Gainsborough); [Duveen, New York, until 1931; given to Bache]; Jules S. Bache, New York (1931–d. 1944; his estate, 1944–49; cats., 1929, unnumbered; 1937, no. 58; 1943, no. 57)

New York. National Academy of Design. "Loan Exhibition of Portraits," December 14, 1898–January 14, 1899, no. 118 (as "Lady Musgrave [sic]," by Thomas Gainsborough, lent by Geo. J. Gould).

Cincinnati Art Museum. "Paintings and Drawings by Thomas Gainsborough, R.A.," May 1–31, 1931, no. 37 (as "Lady Mulgrave," by Gainsborough, lent by Jules S. Bache).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Bache Collection," June 16–September 30, 1943, no. 57.

Walter Armstrong. Gainsborough & His Place in English Art. London, 1898, p. 200 [popular ed., New York, 1904, p. 274], as Gainsborough, Lady Mulgrave, a miniature in the collection of G. Gould.

A Catalogue of Paintings in the Collection of Jules S. Bache. New York, 1929, unpaginated, ill.

Royal Cortissoz. "The Jules S. Bache Collection." American Magazine of Art 21 (May 1930), p. 261, as by Gainsborough.

A Catalogue of Paintings in the Bache Collection. under revision. New York, 1937, unpaginated, no. 58, ill.

A Catalogue of Paintings in the Bache Collection. rev. ed. New York, 1943, unpaginated, no. 57, ill.

An American Correspondent. "English Portraits in the Jules Bache Collection." Connoisseur 113 (March 1944), pp. 51–53, ill., as "Lady Mulgrave," by Gainsborough; confuses the identity of the sitter with the daughter of Mary Lepell.

E[llis]. K. Waterhouse. "Preliminary Check List of Portraits by Thomas Gainsborough." Walpole Society 33 (1953), p. 79, as Anne Elizabeth, Lady Mulgrave, "certainly not by Gainsborough" but a copy of his portrait in the Jean Groult collection.

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 40.

John Hayes. Letter to Katharine Baetjer. August 7, 1990, reaffirms his attribution to Dupont, noting that the picture "betrays throughout the fussiness of handling, often masking form, that is one of the trademarks of his painting".

H. G. Belsey. Letter to Katharine Baetjer. December 20, 1991, accepts the attribution to Gainsborough Dupont.

Richard Walker. The Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century Miniatures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen. Cambridge, 1992, p. 177, as a miniature copy after Gainsborough.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 194, ill., as "Lady Mulgrave (Anne Elizabeh Cholmley, 1769–1788)".

Meryle Secrest. Duveen: A Life in Art. New York, 2004, p. 438.

Katharine Baetjer. British Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1575–1875. New York, 2009, pp. 156–58, no. 75, ill. (color).

This is a small replica by Dupont of Gainsborough's portrait of about 1784–85, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1785. The recorded provenance of the Gainsborough is as follows:
by descent to George Augustus Constantine Phipps, 2nd Marquess of Normanby, Mulgrave Castle (until 1880; sold to Price); James Price (1880–95; posthumous sale, Christie's, London, June 15, 1895, no. 70, for £10,500 to Campbell); Camille Groult, Paris (until d. 1908); by descent in the Groult family, Paris (1908–at least 1958).