Beschreibung:

Details
THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. (SUDBURY 1727-1788 LONDON)
Double portrait of Master John Truman Villebois (c.1773-1837) and his brother Henry Villebois (1777-1847)
oil on canvas
61 3/4 x 52 in. (156.9 x 132.1 cm.)
Provenance
By descent in the family of the sitters to,
Henry Villebois (1807-1886), on whose wishes purchased for £8,000 in June 1886 by his widow,
Mrs Maria Villebois, née Bagge (1811-1892).
with Duveen, London, 1917.
Mrs Marcia Tucker, née Brady (1884-1976), New York, by 1926; her sale (†), Plaza Art Galleries, New York, 17 November 1977, lot 75, where acquired by the following,
with Agnew's, London, 1993, from whom acquired by the following,
Anonymous sale [Property of a Family Trust]; Sotheby's, London, 12 April 1995, lot 56.
with Richard Green, London, from whom acquired by the present owner.
Literature
Sir W. Armstrong, Gainsborough and his Place in English Art, London, 1898, p. 203, with incorrect sitters' names.
Sir W. Armstrong, Gainsborough and his Place in English Art, The Popular Edition, London, 1904, p. 281.
W.B. Boulton, Thomas Gainsborough his life, work, friends and sitters, London, 1905, pp. 219-20
E.K. Waterhouse, 'Preliminary Check List of Portraits by Thomas Gainsborough', Walpole Society, XXXIII, 1953, p. 108.
E.K. Waterhouse, Gainsborough, London, 1958, p. 93, no. 675, pl. 222.
J. Doyle, Trumans the Brewers 1666-1966, London, 1966, pp. 15-16, illustrated.
P. Crown, 'Portraits and Fancy Pictures by Gainsborough and Reynolds: Contrasting Images of Childhood', Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, VII, no. 2, September 1984, pp. 161 and 165, fig. 8.
M. Pointon, Hanging the Head, New Haven and London, 1993, p. 260, note 116.
M. Rosenthal, The Art of Thomas Gainsborough New Haven and London, 1999, pp. 124-25, pl. 112.
H. Belsey, Thomas Gainsborough The Portraits, Fancy Pictures and Copies after Old Masters, New Haven and London, 2019, II, pp. 850 and 852-853.
Exhibited
London, Royal Academy, Old Masters and deceased masters of the British School, 1878, no. 272, with incorrect sitters' names.
London, Grosvenor Gallery, Exhibition of the Works of Thomas Gainsborough R.A., with Historical Notes, 1885, no. 177, with incorrect sitters' names.
Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, A Loan Exhibition of English Paintings, January 1926, no. 5.
Pittsburg, Carnegie Institute, A Survey of British Paintings, 10 May-12 June 1938, no. 41.
New York, New York World's Fair, Masterpieces of Art, May-October 1939, no. 157.
Paris, Grand Palais, Gainsborough 1721-1788, 7 February-27 April 1981, no. 54.
On loan to the Leicestershire Museum and Art Gallery, 1981 - 1992.
London, Tate Britain; Washington, National Gallery of Art; and Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Gainsborough,
24 October 2002 - 14 September 2003, no. 99.
Frankfurt, Städel Museum; and London, Dulwich Picture Gallery, The Changing Face of Childhood: British Children's Portraits and their Influence in Europe, 20 April - 4 November 2007, no. 10.