Portrait of a Lady Holding a Basket of Fruit
School of Godfrey Kneller, English, 1646 - 1723
about 1700
Black and white chalk on blue paper
Overall: 16 3/8 × 12 3/8 in. (41.6 × 31.4 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Julia L. Whittier Fund
D.958.317
Geography
Place Made: England, United Kingdom, Europe
Period
1600-1800
Object Name
Drawing
Research Area
Drawing
On view
Inscriptions
Not signed.
Label
A young woman with curled hair wearing a simple dress holds a basket of fruit, the detailed figure contrasting with a hazy and abstracted background. Godfrey Kneller was a German artist known for his portraits of British aristocrats and society figures, making his school an ideal academy for the study of portraiture in 18th-century England. The movement of artists throughout Europe facilitated the adoption of blue paper as an artistic medium and an important economic commodity. Blue paper held such economic importance that King Charles II banned the importation of blue paper in 1666 to support British paper manufacturers, though the provenance of the paper used to create this image remains unknown.
From the 2025 exhibition Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Making Colors in Europe, 1400–1800, curated by Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programming and Curator of European Art
Label written by Isabelle (Izzy) Lust '25, Class of 1954 Intern
Course History
Engineering Sciences 24.01, Science of Materials, Alex Boys and Ursula Gibson, Winter 2025
Exhibition History
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Making Colors in Europe, 1400–1800, Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 6, 2025 - November 14, 2026.
Portraits at Dartmouth, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 10-April 16, 1978.
Publication History
Arthur R. Blumenthal, Portraits at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 1978, p. 29, no. 19.
Provenance
Alister Mathews, Bournemouth, England; sold to present collection, 1958.
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