Portrait of a Woman, Probably Miss Alice Fanshawe

Inherited by the sitter’s niece, Susanna Noel (née Fanshawe, 1661–1714), by 1705 [1];

By descent to Charles William Noel, 3rd Earl of Gainsborough (1850–1926), Exton Hall, Rutland, England;

Purchased from Noel by a “Bond Street dealer,” London, before 1906 [2];

Purchased from said “Bond Street dealer” by John Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913), London and New York, before 1906 [3];

By descent to his son, John Pierpont Morgan Jr. (1867–1943), London and New York, by 1913 [4];

Purchased at his sale, The Famous Collection of Miniatures of the British and Foreign Schools: the Property of J. Pierpont Morgan, Esq., Christie’s, London, February 24, 1935, lot 23, by A. Walker, 1935 [5];

Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1958;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.

Notes:

[1] G.C. Williamson wrote, “It was [Alice Fanshawe’s] daughter Susan who married Lord Gainsborough, and hence the portrait was transferred to Exton, where it remained until the present Lord Gainsborough parted with it.” In fact, Fanshawe’s daughter Susanna died in infancy; the portrait was almost certainly given to Fanshawe’s niece, also named Susanna (1661–1714), the only child and heir of Alice Fanshawe’s brother Sir Thomas Fanshawe (1628–1705). Susanna married Baptist Noel (1658–1690) around 1683. Their son Baptist Noel (1684–1714) became the 3rd earl of Gainsborough after his cousin Wriothesley Noel, 2nd Earl of Gainsborough (ca. 1661–1690), died without a direct male heir. George Williamson, Catalogue of the Collection of Miniatures: The Property of J. Pierpont Morgan (London: Chiswick Press, 1906–1908), 1:96. The circumstances of her inheritance—which was the result of a legal error, as Susanna had received a marriage settlement and the estate was intended to be inherited by a male cousin—are detailed in H.C. Fanshawe, The History of the Fanshawe Family (Newcastle upon Tyne: A. Reid, 1927), 242.

[2] “[. . . ] It was in this way that the miniature [Portrait of John Fanshawe of Parsloes] (see also No. 106 [Portrait of Miss Alice Fanshawe] and No. 58) came into the possession of the Earls of Gainsborough. It was sold from Exton by the present earl [Charles William Noel was 3rd Earl of Gainsborough from 1881 until his death in 1926] to a Bond Street dealer, and from him passed to the Pierpont Morgan Collection.” Williamson, Catalogue of the Collection of Miniatures, 96. Fragments of an 1896 calendar found inside the case suggest that the miniature could have been treated to prepare it for sale as early as 1896, either to the “Bond Street dealer” or to Morgan, but there is no further evidence to confirm this. We must assume that it was sold sometime between 1896 and 1906, when it was featured in the catalogue of Morgan’s collection published by Williamson in that year.

[3] Daphne Foskett, who was a frequent correspondent with the Starrs and was familiar with their collection, lists the portrait as “Ex Pierpont Morgan Coll, / Starr Collection, Kansas City.” Daphne Foskett, Samuel Cooper (London: Faber and Faber, 1974), 109.

[4] Per the introduction to the Christie’s sale catalogue (not paginated), “[The collection] was thus brought together in Mr. Pierpont Morgan’s London House in Princes Gate, where it remained for several years until its removal to New York. Now it has returned to London.” The Famous Collection of Miniatures of the British and Foreign Schools: the Property of J. Pierpont Morgan, Esq., which will be sold at auction by Messrs. Christie, Manson and Woods … on Monday, June 24, 1935 (London: Christie’s, 1935).

[5] The lot was described in the catalogue as follows: “Portrait of Alice Fanshawe, married her cousin, John Fanshawe, esq. of Parsloes […] signed with the initials S.C. and dated 1647. From the collection of the Earl of Gainsborough, at Exton. Described in Dr. G.C. Williamson’s Catalogue, vol. 1, No. 106.”