Mrs. Richard Hoare Holding her Child

In 1843 this canvas hung in Bridgewater House, the London mansion of Lord Francis Egerton, catalogued as a study by Thomas Lawrence, a painter who was not yet born when it was made. Later it passed as a sketch by Benjamin West, and when it was relined around 1900 a card turned up behind it that read, original sketch by West. By 1980 a New York dealer was offering it as Reynolds, and two years later the museum bought it. The sitter is Susanna Hoare, born Dingley, who married the banker Richard Hoare in 1762, and the child is their daughter, also called Susanna. A finished version of the pair hangs in the Wallace Collection in London. The museum suggests this one was an abandoned first attempt, the Wallace Collection calls it a full-size sketch for working out changes, and either way Reynolds stopped early. You can see how he began, with an outline drawn with the brush, then broad patches of colour, the greys and whites kept close together in tone.