Yale Center for British Art

Creator:
George Beare, 1724/5–1749, British
Title:
Portrait of an Elderly Lady and a Girl
Date:
1747
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
49 1/16 x 40 1/4 inches (124.6 x 102.2 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Signed and dated, center left: "Geo : Beare . pinx+ | 1747."
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1976.7.180
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
portrait | vase | costume | chair | flowers (plants) | interior | elderly | girl | woman
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Love, Life, Death, and Desire: An Installation of the Center's Collections (Yale Center for British Art, 2020-10-01 - 2021-02-28)

This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1998-05-01 - 1998-07-05)

This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Queensland Art Gallery, 1998-07-15 - 1998-09-06)

This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of South Australia, 1998-09-16 - 1998-11-15)
Publications:
Mark Bills, Early Gainsborough: 'From the Obscurity of a Country Town', Gainsborough's House Society, Sudbury, Suffolk, United Kingdom, p. 105, fig. 8, NJ18.G16 B55 2018 (LC) Oversize (YCBA)

British Art at Yale, Apollo, vol.105, April 1977, pp. 243, 245, fig. 14, N1 .A54 + OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 20-21, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA)

Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions, Burlington Magazine, v. 117,no.873, December 1975, p. 820-21, fig. 48, N1 B87 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) Also available online in JSTOR.

George Beare, very human portraits of ordinary people of the 1740's by an artist whose style and quality at their best rank him alongside his contemporaries Hogarth and Hudson : exhibition 11 November - 30 December, Pallant House ... , Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, Sussex (England), 1989, pp. 6, 32-33, no. 28, NJ18 B3624 A12 C65 1989 (YCBA)

Julia Marciari-Alexander, This other Eden : Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1998, p. 50, no. 13, ND1314.3 Y36 1998 (YCBA)

Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 3, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Richard Henry Saunders, John Smibert : Colonial America's First Portrait Painter, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1995, pp. 71, 73, fig. 68, NJ18 Sm4 A12 S28 1995 (YCBA)

Frank Trapp, British art, v. 6-7, Mead Art Museum, Amherst, Mass., 1986, p. 17, fig. 2, N6764 B75 (YCBA)

William Vaughan, British painting, the Golden Age from Hogarth to Turner , Thames and Hudson, London, 1999, p. 49, no. 31, ND466 V28 1999 (YCBA)

Ellis Waterhouse, An Impressive Panorama of British Portraiture, Apollo, v. 105, no. 182, April 1977, pp. 243, 245, fig. 14, N1 A54 + (YCBA) Another copy of this article may be found in a separately bound and catalogued copy of this issue located on the Mellon Shelf [call number : N5220 M552 A7 1977 + (YCBA)]

Ellis Waterhouse, Dictionary of British 18th Century Painters in Oils and Crayons, Antique Collectors' Club, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1981, pp. 44-45, ND466 +.W38 Oversize (YCBA)

Yale Center for British Art, Selected paintings, drawings & books, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1977, p. 12, N590.2 A82 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
Little is known about the provincial portrait painter George Beare, and the sitters in this double portrait, perhaps grandmother and granddaughter, are unidentified. The image presents a sympathetic contrast between the older woman, elaborately dressed in gray damask and lace, and the freshness and simplicity of the girl. The painting represents a subtle shift in taste from the rococo style, as practiced in Britain by painters like Jean-Baptiste van Loo and Francis Hayman, toward the more direct English style of naturalism associated with William Hogarth. The sumptuous fabrics suggest that the sitters belonged to one of the wealthier families of the Salisbury region where Beare had his studio, and it has been suggested that they were members of the Grove family of Ferne House, Berwick St. John, Wiltshire. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:4998