Lady Sarah Bunbury Sacrificing to the Graces

Description

Dressed in Classically inspired robes, Lady Sarah Bunbury pours a libation of oil as an offering to the Three Graces, positioned behind her. Her soon-to-be husband, Charles Bunbury, commissioned this marriage portrait, making her association with the Graces—symbols of fertility and attendants to the Roman goddess of love, Venus—all the more appropriate.

The first president of the Royal Academy in London, Sir Joshua Reynolds urged his fellow artists to paint historical and edifying subjects based on the art of antiquity and the Renaissance. As a portrait painter, he developed a grand style that ennobled the genre by giving his sitters Classical attributes and poses.

Provenance

Commissioned by Sir Thomas Charles Bunbury, sixth Bt. (d. 1821), husband of the sitter, apparently for 250 gns [Malcolm Cormack, “The Ledgers of Sir Joshua Reynolds,” Walpole Society 42 (1968–70, pp. 112, 145]; by descent to his nephew’s grandson, Sir Henry Charles John Bunbury, tenth Bt., Barton Hall and Mildenhall, Suffolk, to at least 1905 [Armstrong 1905]. Charles J. Wertheimer (d. 1911), London, by 1908 [according to London 1908]; sold Christie’s, London, May 10, 1912, no. 63, to Sulley [see London 1986]. Henry Reinhardt Gallery, New York and Chicago, by 1915; sold by Reinhardt to Mrs. W. W. Kimball (d. 1921), Chicago, 1915 [see American Art News 1915]; on loan to the Art Institute of Chicago from 1920; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1922.

Lady Sarah Bunbury Sacrificing to the Graces

Sir Joshua Reynolds

1763–65

Accession Number

4788

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

242.6 × 151.5 cm (95 1/2 × 59 3/4 in.)

Classification

oil on canvas

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Kimball Collection

Background & Context

Background Story

Sir Joshua Reynolds's Lady Sarah Bunbury Sacrificing to the Graces is a portrait by the first president of the Royal Academy. Reynolds (1723-1792) was the leading English portraitist of the 18th century. The painting shows Lady Sarah in a classical pose offering sacrifice to the Three Graces.

Cultural Impact

Reynolds was the greatest English portrait painter of the 18th century.

Why It Matters

This portrait combines classical allusion with elegant portraiture.

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