Eva Maria Veigel, Mrs David Garrick (1724-1822)
Johann Zoffany, RA (Frankfurt am Main 1733 - Kew 1810)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1762 - 1763
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1257 x 1003 mm (49 1/2 x 39 1/2 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Polesden Lacey, Surrey
NT 1246673
Caption
Austrian ballet dancer and wife of the actor David Garrick. The sitter presents herself in a shimmering masquerade costume having removed her mask to return our gaze with a knowing smile. The delicate vitality of this gesture gives away her profession as a dancer; as ‘Violette’ she had gathered an ardent following in both Vienna and London. Yet Eva Marie’s dancing days were over by the time this portrait was painted, having ended her career upon her marriage back in 1749. It hung in the dining parlour of the Garrick's country villa at Hampton on the banks of the River Thames.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Eva Maria Veigel, Mrs David Garrick (1724-1822), by Johann Zoffany, RA (Frankfurt am Main 1733 - Kew 1810), 1762/3. A three-quarter-length portrait of the dancer Eva Maria Veigel, wife of the actor David Garrick (1717-1779). She is turned to the right, gazing at the spectator, holding a mask in her left hand, her hair dressed with a white ribbon, and wearing a white satin skirt with a blue satin short coat under a gold short-sleeved coat. Drapes in the background to the left.
Provenance
Commissioned from the artist by David Garrick (1717 - 1779) with eight other pictures 'uno de la Signora'; purchased by Mrs Thomas Carr for £23 2s 0d., at the posthumous sale of Eva Marie Garrick (1733 - 1822), Christie's 23 June 1823, lot 44; Anon. sale (Rev. G. Stanley), Christie's, 19 May1911, lot 69; bought Lord Coventry (1838 - 1930); ?owned by Asher Wertheimer (1844 - 1918); sold Christie's in 1920; with Leggatt in 1925 from whom presumably acquired by Margaret Greville, DBE (1863 - 1942). Bequeathed in 1942 by Margaret Helen Greville DBE (1863-1942) to the National Trust, along with the Polesden Lacey Estate in memory of her father William McEwan MP (1827-1913). [The probate inventory of January 1943 shows this item in the record for Polesden Lacey pictures, drawings etc., stored in the cellar.]
Credit line
Polesden Lacey, The William McEwan Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Johann Zoffany, RA (Frankfurt am Main 1733 - Kew 1810), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Johann Zoffany, RA (Frankfurt am Main 1733 - Kew 1810), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Philippe Mercier (Berlin 1689 – London 1760), artist
References
Smith 1845 John Thomas Smith, A Book for a Rainy Day: or, Recollections of Events of the Last Sixty-Six Years, London, 1845, pp.240, 285-6 Manners and Williamson 1924 Lady Victoria Manners and G.C.Williamson, Zoffany, London, 1924, opposite p.8 Webster 2011 Mary Webster, Johan Zoffany 1733-1810, London and New Haven, 2011, pp.84, 86-8 Chu 2017: John Chu, The Pictures at Polesden Lacey, National Trust, 2017, p.32
