Note 25 — ENGLISH, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

William Smith (1756–1835) was a politician who took a great interest in literature and art. He was a friend of Sir Joshua Reynolds, for whose Mrs. Siddons as The Tragic Muse he paid £320 at the Calonne Sale in 1795 and sold it to Mr. G. W. Taylor for £900. At the Taylor Sale in 1823 the picture cost Earl Grosvenor £1,837. It passed recently to America along with Gainsborough’s Blue Boy.

“This picture Sir Joshua Reynolds valued at 1000 guineas—a large sum in his day—but notwithstanding all the encomiums passed upon it, The Tragic Muse remained on his hands for several years. At length it was purchased from the artist for £800 by M. de Calonne, the ex-minister of finance in France.

“When M. de Calonne’s pictures were sold by Skinner and Dyke on March 28, 1795, The Tragic Muse was bought by Mr. Smith of Norwich for £700 and Mr. Smith sold it privately to Mr. G. Watson Taylor for £900. At the sale of Mr. Taylor’s pictures in 1823 it was purchased by Earl Grosvenor for £1,837-10. Inherited by the Dukes of Westminster, The Tragic Muse hung for many years in Grosvenor House, in company with Gainsborough’s Blue Boy until it was sold in 1921 to the late Mr. Henry E. Huntington.”