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Master Henry Hoare

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Master Henry Hoare

Artist Sir Joshua Reynolds (English | British, 1723-1792)
Place of OriginEngland
Date1788
DimensionsPainting: 50 1/4 × 39 7/8 in. (127.6 × 101.3 cm)
Frame: 61 × 51 × 5 in. (154.9 × 129.5 × 12.7 cm)
MediumOil on canvas
ClassificationPaintings
Credit LinePurchased with funds given by Mr. and Mrs. George W. Ritter
Object number
1955.31
On View
Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 27
Label TextAbout four years old in this painting, Henry Hoare (1784–1836) was the son of Sir Richard Colt Hoare (1758–1838), who was an amateur archeologist. The Hoare family made their money in banking and lived in the famous English country estate Stourhead, which had extensive gardens at the forefront of 18th-century landscape design. Curly-locked and wearing a white muslin dress, Henry might easily be mistaken for a girl. It was traditional in Europe and America from the mid-16th century even into the early 20th century for boys and girls to be dressed alike until boys underwent “breeching”—their first time being dressed in trousers. This was typically after toilet training and the child was able to manage the complicated fastenings of the fashions of the day.Published ReferencesA Description of the House and Gardens at Stourhead, Bath, 1818, p. 9.

Neale, J.P., Mansions of England..., London, 1847, II, p. X4.

Graves, A., and W. V. Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A., London, 1899, II, p. 468.

Armstrong, W., Sir Joshua Reynolds, London, 1900, p. 212.

Waterhouse, E.K., Reynolds, London, 1941, p. 80.

"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums July-Spet. 1955," Art Quarterly, Spring 1956, p. 73, repr. p. 77.

Rogers, Millard F., Jr., "Gentlemen and Gentry," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 3, no. 2, Spring 1960, p. 29, repr. (col.) p. 25.

Cormack, M. (transcribed by), "The Ledgers of Sir Joshua Reynolds," Walpole Society, XLII, 1968-1970, p. 156.

Waterhouse, E. K. Reynolds, London, 1973, pl. 112.

The Toledo Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. p. 71.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 137, 138, pl. 311.

Morse, John D., Old Master Paintings in North America, New York, 1979, p. 238.

Strong, Roy C., The Artist and the Garden, New Haven, 2000, pp. 83, 277 n. 104, fig. 91 (col.).

Mannings, David, Sir Joshua Reynolds: A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings, New Haven, 2000, no. 908, vol. I, p. 258; vol. II, fig. 1548, p. 572.

McMaster, Julie A., The Enduring Legacy: A Pictorial History of the Toledo Museum of Art, Superior Printing, Warren, OH, 2001, p. 31.

Exhibition HistoryLondon, Royal Academy, Royal Academy of Arts Bicentenary Exhibition, 1768-1968, 1968, I, no. 120; II, repr. p. 45.
Captain William Hamilton
Sir Joshua Reynolds
1762-1772 and 1785
Unidentified Gentleman
Joshua Johnson
about 1815
Unidentified Lady
Joshua Johnson
about 1815
Lord Amherst
Sir Thomas Lawrence
1821
Woman in a Black Hat
Pablo Picasso
1909
The Agony in the Garden
Domenikos Theotokopoulos, called El Greco
about 1590-1595
Ulysses and Penelope
Francesco Primaticcio
about 1560
The Flight into Egypt
Jacopo Bassano (Jacopo dal Ponte)
about 1540-1545

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