Details
JOHN HOPPNER, R.A. (LONDON 1758-1810)
Portrait of Jane Elizabeth Matilda Pearson, née Hooke (1784-1833), half-length
oil on canvas
30 x 253⁄8 in. (76.2 x 64.4 cm.)
Provenance
By descent to the sitter's grandson,
Captain George John Hooke Pearson (c. 1842-1912), Stone Albany House, Market Harborough, Leicestershire.
with Basil Dighton, London, where acquired on 17 July 1927 by,
with Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, where acquired on 14 December 1928 by,
Horace Trumbauer (1868-1938).
with Newhouse Galleries, New York.
Kay Kimbell (1886-1964) and Velma Kimbell, née Fuller (1887-1982), Fort Worth, Texas; (†), Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 20 April 1983 (=1st day), lot 42.
with Simon Dickinson, London, where acquired by the father of the present owner.
Literature
'The Guildhall Exhibition', The Times, 30 April 1902, p. 4.
F.G. Dumas, The Franco-British Exhibition: Illustrated Review, London, 1908, p. 34.
W. McKay and W. Roberts, John Hoppner R.A., London, 1909, p. 200.
'Notable Works of Art Now on the Market', The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, LII, January 1928, p. xix, pl. 7.
Exhibited
London, Guildhall, Exhibition of a Selection of Works by French and English painters of the Eighteenth Century, 1902, no. 78, lent by Captain Pearson.
London, White City, Franco-British Exhibition, 14 May-31 October 1908, no. 49, lent by Captain Pearson.
Toronto, The Art Gallery of Toronto, A Loan Exhibition of Portraits, 7 October-6 November 1927, no. 46, lent by Thomas Agnew & Sons.
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Lot Essay

The sitter was the eldest daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel George Philip Hooke (1722-1796) and Mary Bloxam (1755-1842). The present portrait was said to have been painted by Hoppner at Pearson's home in Tettenhall, Staffordshire, in the years shortly after her marriage on the 21st December 1802 to John Pearson (1771-1841), later Advocate-General of Bengal (McKay and Roberts, op. cit.). In 1824, following her husband's appointment to that office, the family undertook a four-month voyage to Calcutta. Their passage was recorded in journals kept by both John Pearson and their daughter, Jane Frances Matilda Pearson (1808-1887). They provide vivid accounts of life at sea, stops in Madeira and the island of Anjouan in the Comoros (historically known as the island of Johanna) and the family's arrival to India. The sitter lived in Calcutta for almost ten years before returning to England on account of ill health. The portrait was loaned to exhibitions in the early twentieth century by the sitter's grandson, Captain George John Hooke Pearson (c.1842-1912) where it was praised as 'one of the most beautiful examples of the middle period of Hoppner that it would be possible to find' (The Times, op. cit.).

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