Miss Meyer as 'Hebe'
Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (Plympton 1723 - London 1792)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1771 (sittings recorded) - 1772 (exh at RA)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1295 x 997 mm (51 x 39 1/4 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Ascott Estate, Buckinghamshire
NT 1535159
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Miss Meyer as 'Hebe' by Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (Plympton 1723 - London 1792), 1771. A full-length portrait of a young female figure standing to right on a cloud, her head turned towards the spectator over her right shoulder; she wears a pink dress with flaring gauze scarf and holds up a ewer, with nectar for the Gods; by her side is Jupiter, or Zeus, in the form of an eagle with outstretched wings clasping a thunderbolt in his left claw. Mary Meyer was the second daughter of the miniaturist Jeremiah, a founding member of the RA. She is depicted here posing as Hebe, the mythical cupbearer to the gods. Appointments and dittings are recorded on 2nd and 5th August, 17th and 19th Septmber, 7th and 15th October, 4th, 7th and 11th December 1771 and 27th Janurary 1772. A chiaroscuro woodcut by Bonasone, after Parmigianino of Circe, in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, provides a source for the girl's pose. And the eagle could have been painted from the stuffed bird that Northcote mentioned as having seen in the studio.
Provenance
Jeremiah Meyer (1735 - 1789), the sitter's father; Mrs Meyer in 1815; by descent to the Delafields of Bath by 1865 [not in Delafield sale, 30 April 1870]; Baron Lionel de Rothschild by 1873; thence by descent to Anthony de Rothschild (1887- 1961); by whom given to the National Trust with the house in 1949
Credit line
Ascott, The Anthony de Rothschild Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (Plympton 1723 - London 1792), artist
References
Leslie and Taylor 1865 Charles Robert Leslie and Tom Taylor, Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 2 vols, 1865 , I, pp. 444-5 Graves and Cronin 1899-1901 Algernon Graves and W.V.Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 4 vols, London 1899-1901, II, pp. 642-3 Armstrong 1900 Sir Walter Armstrong, Sir Joshua Reynolds, First President of the Royal Academy, 1900, p.220 Waterhouse 1941 Ellis K. Waterhouse, Reynolds, London, 1941, p. 62, pl. 140 Ascott, Buckinghamshire, Scala, 2008 by John Martin Robinson and others [pictures entries by Karin Wolfe on basis of Gore entries, 1963 with contributions from Alastair Laing] , no. 2