Home
/
G0235
Miniatures: G0235
Title
David Garrick
Technique
Watercolour
Subject
Artist
Dimensions
Height: 18.4cm
Width: 18.4cm
Width: 18.4cm
Other materials
Watercolour with hair on card; framed in a decorative brass and glass frame
Inscription/signature
"David Garrick Esqr. / The Face / Mr & Mrs Garrick's Hair mixt with Colours, The Wig Mr. Garrick's Hair / Worked by Miss Lane / and purchased of her / 20th Jany 1779." (engr. on verso of brass frame)
Provenance
Presented to the Garrick Club by Gerald Lawrence, 1946, or A. Darnborough, 1958
Other number
GCL 689
Gift 641 or 763
Gift 641 or 763
Exhibition history
1975 London, Hayward Gallery, "The Georgian Playhouse" (65)
1981 Buxton, Museum and Art Gallery, "Thirty Different Likenesses: David Garrick in Portrait and in Performance" (13)
1994 Hereford City Art Gallery "The World of David Garrick"
Related works
Another hair portrait of Garrick was engraved by J. Heath pub. J. White 1819. (See P0072) The sitter is shown in profile to right, without a wig. Beneath inscr: "MR GARRICK sat for the last time and afterwards sent a lock of his hair to MISS LANE, inclosed in a note, fot the purpose of her completing the miniature for Mrs Garrick, a few months before his decease." [This portrait or the Garrick Club version was owned by the artist's brother, the Rev. Theophilus Lane, Rector of St Michael's, Crooked Lane, and then was in the possession of the Rev. Trevor Garrick (a descendent of George Garrick) until his death in the 1940s. See Mander & Mitchenson, "The Artist and the Theatre", p.68.]
Literature
Little & Kahrl, 3: 1261-62 (No.1221)
Garrick's wig is made of hair, and hair is applied to his brown jacket. He wears a brown waistcoat and a white stock.
Garrick wrote to Anne Louisa Lane just before his death, in January 1779: "Mr Garrick presents his Compts to Miss Lane - He has sent a little of Mrs Garrick & his own hair - He has but one lock behind or he wd have sent more - Mr Garrick is much Oblig'd to Miss Lane for her politeness about his Picture." The composition is based on Reynolds's Thrale portrait (see G0241). In 1778 Garrick had commissioned from Miss Lane a copy in hair of Reynolds's portrait of John Campbell, later Lord Cawdor. He also ordered portraits of himself and Shakespeare done in the hair of Lady Spencer and the Duchess of Devonshire.
Garrick wrote to Anne Louisa Lane just before his death, in January 1779: "Mr Garrick presents his Compts to Miss Lane - He has sent a little of Mrs Garrick & his own hair - He has but one lock behind or he wd have sent more - Mr Garrick is much Oblig'd to Miss Lane for her politeness about his Picture." The composition is based on Reynolds's Thrale portrait (see G0241). In 1778 Garrick had commissioned from Miss Lane a copy in hair of Reynolds's portrait of John Campbell, later Lord Cawdor. He also ordered portraits of himself and Shakespeare done in the hair of Lady Spencer and the Duchess of Devonshire.
