Portrait of Miss Sarah Cruttenden
Framed: 58 × 48 1/4 × 3 inches (147.32 × 122.56 × 7.62 cm)
Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School, Including a Special Selection from the Works of Sir A.W. Callcott, R.A., and D. Maclise, R.A., Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, London, winter 1875, no. 1, as by Thomas Gainsborough, Portrait of Miss Cruttenden, Afterwards Mrs. Randal.
Winifred Public Schools, Winifred, KS, 1942.
Nathaniel Dance, 1735-1811, Kenwood House, London, June 25-September 4, 1977, no. 43.
Origins: Collecting to Create the Nelson-Atkins, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, August 14, 2021-March 6, 2022.
Possibly to the sitter’s father, Edward Holden Cruttenden (ca. 1717-1771), Putney Heath, Surrey, and St. Andrew Holborn, London, before 1771;
Probably to the sitter, Sarah Cruttenden (later Mrs. John Randall, 1754-1812);
By descent to her nephew and daughter, Lieutenant Colonel Charles (1777-1859) and Mrs. Margaret-Eleanor (née Randall, 1778-1859) Purvis, Darsham County, Suffolk [1];
By descent to their son, Arthur Purvis, Esq. (1813-1877), Darsham House, Suffolk, and Middlesex, as by Thomas Gainsborough, Portrait of Miss Cruttenden, Afterwards Mrs. Randal, by winter 1875;
Inherited by Maud and Ethel Kennedy-Purvis, by 1928 [2];
With Yunt Art Galleries, Kansas City, MO, by April 21, 1930 [3];
Purchased from Yunt Art Galleries by Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1930, as by Francis Cotes.
[1] Letter from W. Roberts, June 16, 1928, and manuscript notes by Valerie Zell, March 8, 2002, NAMA curatorial file.
[2] In a letter from W. Roberts, June 16, 1928, the two women are listed as nieces of Arthur Purvis, see NAMA curatorial file. According to documents found on Ancestry.com, Arthur’s son, Arthur-Kennedy Kennedy-Purvis (1848-1887), married Alice Maud Sawyer (ca. 1842-1924) in 1875. The couple had four daughters: Mary Francis Alice (b. 1876), Gladys Elinor (b. 1877), Maud Charlotte (1879-1955), and Evelyn Lily (b. 1884). Alice Maud or Maud Charlotte might be the Maud in question. Arthur’s grandson, Charles-Edward Kennedy-Purvis (1884-1946) married Ethel May Conquest (1886-1971); this may be the Ethel in question.
[3] Dissertation by David Antony Goodreau, “Nathaniel Dance, R. A. (1735-1811)” (PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1973), 308.
Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School, Including a Special Selection from the Works of Sir A.W. Callcott, R.A., and D. Maclise, R.A., exh.cat. (London: William Clowes and Sons, 1875), as by Thomas Gainsborough, Portrait of Miss Cruttenden, Afterwards Mrs. Randal.
Algernon Graves, “A Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813-1912,” The Art News 1, no. 1 (1913), 382, as possibly by Francis Cotes, Miss Cruttenden.
“The Acquisitions,” in “Nelson Gallery of Art Special Number,” The Art Digest 8, no. 5 (December 1, 1933), 21, as by Francis Cotes, Portrait of Miss Cruttenden.
“Complete Catalogue of Paintings and Drawings,” in “The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City Special Number,” The Art News 32, no. 10 (December 9, 1933), 28, as by Francis Cotes, Portrait of Miss Cruttenden.
David Antony Goodreau, “Nathaniel Dance, R. A. (1735-1811)” (PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1973), 308, as Miss Sarah Cruttenden.
Edward Mead Johnson, Francis Cotes: Complete Edition with a Critical Essay and a Catalogue (Oxford: Phaidon, 1976), 166, as by Nathaniel Dance, Miss Cruttenden.
David Goodreau, Nathaniel Dance, 1735-1811, exh. cat. (London: Greater London Council, 1977).
