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Creator:
George Romney, 1734–1802
Title:
Ann Wilson (née Harrison) and Her Daughter, Sybill [2024, YCBA]
Former Title(s):

Anne Wilson and Her Daughter, Sybill

Portrait of Mrs. George Wilson and her Daughter

Ann Wilson with Her Daughter, Sybil
Date:
between 1776 and 1777
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
49 × 39 1/2 inches (124.5 × 100.3 cm), Frame: 58 × 48 1/2 × 3 inches (147.3 × 123.2 × 7.6 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1983.1
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:
B1983.1FR
Subject Terms:
chemise dress | child | daughter | dress (costume) | family | girl | memory | mother | mourning | Neoclassical | portrait | sash | shawl | shawls | stonework | woman
Associated People:
Wilson, Sybill (1766–1773)
Wilson, Ann (née Harrison, 1734–1811)
Access:
Not on view
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:1227
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Sibyll, the young girl in this portrait, was the only child of Anne and George Wilson, early patrons of Romney. Sibyll died in 1773, aged just six, and her sorrowful parents commissioned this tender commemorative portrait of her as if she had returned to console her grieving mother. The portrait was delayed by Romney’s sojourn in Italy between 1773 and 1775 and was probably not finished until 1777. Its austere, sculptural quality betrays his study of ancient funerary marbles while in Rome.

Gallery label for Love, Life, Death, and Desire: An Installation of the Center's Collections (Yale Center for British Art, 2020-11-01 – 2021-02-28)


Sibyl, the young girl in this portrait, was the only child of Anne and George Wilson. The Wilsons were important early patrons of George Romney, who became a significant rival to Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough in the 1770s and 1780s. Sibyl died in 1773, at the age of six, and her sorrowful parents commissioned this tender commemorative portrait of Sibyl as if she had returned to console her grieving mother. The portrait was delayed by Romney’s sojourn in Italy between 1773 and 1775 and was probably not begun until 1777, but sketches suggest he was planning it while abroad. Its austere, sculptural quality betrays his study of ancient funerary marbles while in Rome.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016


Romney was on close terms with the heiress Ann Sibyll Wilson and her husband, Colonel George Wilson of Dallam Tower, who was one of his best early patrons. He painted this tender maternal group as a memorial to their only child, Sibyll Elizabeth, who had died in February 1773 at the age of six. The mother sits with her head bowed in grief and eyes downcast, her daughter like a memory or apparition at her side. In the gloomy, tomb-like setting of plain stonework, wearing classical dress, she resembles one of the virtuous, suffering matrons of ancient Roman legend. The suggestions of antique style were clearly self-conscious, and reflect Romney's admiration for the neoclassical style, which deepened during the period he lived in Italy (1773-75).

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2005

In a New Light: Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art (Yale University Art Gallery, 2023-03-24 - 2023-12-03) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Love, Life, Death, and Desire: An Installation of the Center's Collections (Yale Center for British Art, 2020-10-01 - 2021-02-28) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

The Critique of Reason : Romantic Art, 1760–1860 (Yale University Art Gallery, 2015-03-06 - 2015-07-26) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

George Romney (1734-1802) (The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, 2002-09-15 - 2002-12-01) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

George Romney (1734-1802) (National Portrait Gallery, 2002-05-30 - 2002-08-18) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

George Romney (1734-1802) (Walker Art Gallery, 2002-02-07 - 2002-04-28) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Acquisitions : The First Decade 1977-1986 : Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1986, p. 17, no. 47, N590.2 .A7 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

David Brenneman, Romney Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Transactions of the Romney Society, vol. 1, 1996, pp. 16, 17, NJ18 R65 T7 1996 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Arthur Bensley Chamberlain, George Romney, Methuen & co., ltd., London, 1910, pp. 27, 294, no. xxvii (oppoate p. 134), NJ18 R65 C43 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Christie's Sale Catalogue : Important English Pictures : Friday 19 November 1982, Christie's, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 19 Nov 1982, pp. 138-9, no. 91, Auction Catalogues (YCBA) [OCLC]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 192-193, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

David A. Cross, A striking likeness, the life of George Romney , Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot, England Brookfield, VT, 2000, p. 110, NJ18 R65 C76 2000 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Yvonne Romney Dixon, Romney Sketchbooks in Public Collections, Transactions of the Romney Society, vol. 8, 2003, p. 26, no. 23, NJ18 R65 T7 2003 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Hilda Gamlin, George Romney and his art, The Macmillan Company, London; New York, 1894, pp. 12-13, J18 R666 894G (SML) [ORBIS]

Alex Kidson, George Romney : a complete catalogue of his paintings, The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, New Haven, 2015, v. 2, pp. 638-39poster, cat. no. 1427, col. pl. 1427, NJ18.R65 A12 +K54 2015 v.1-3 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Alex Kidson, George Romney, 1734-1802, National Portrait Gallery, London, 2002, pp. 108-109, no. 51, NJ18 R65 K53 2002 (YCBA) [YCBA]

B. E. Maclean-Eltham, George Romney : Paintings in public collections, , The Romney Society, Kendal, Cumbria, England, 1996, p. 60, NJ18 R65 M33 1996 [ORBIS]

Duncan Robinson, Acquisitions : The First Decade 1977 - 1986, , Burlington Magazine, vol. 128, October 1986, p. 17, no. 47, N1 .B87 128:3 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Gerhard Charles Rump, George Romney (1734-1802), Zur Bildformder Bürgerlichen Mitte in der Englischen neoklassik , vol. 1, George Olms Verlag, Hildesheim, 1974, v. 1, pp. 76-77; v. 2, abb. 22, Abb. 22, NJ18 R65 R85 1 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Linda Furgerson Selzer, Reading the Painterly Text, Clarence Major's "The Slave Trade: View from the Middle Passage" , African American Review, vol. 33, Summer 1999, pp. 222, 228, fig. 13, PS 153 N5 B53 (SML) Also available online at JSTOR. [ORBIS]

Robin Simon, The portrait in Britain and America, with a biographical dictionary of portrait painters 1680-1914 , Phaidon Press, Oxford, 1987, p. 34, no. 2, ND1314 S46 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Thomas Humphry Ward, Romney : A Biographical and Critical Essay with a Catalogue Raisonne´ of His Works, , , Thos. Agnew & Sons, London, 1904, pp. 172-3, NJ18 R65 A12 +W37 v.1-2 (YCBA) [YCBA]


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