The Obsession-Causing Portrait

What was it about painting the Duchess of Devonshire?

Her son, Hart, said none of her numerous portraits captured her true likeness.  She was the lady who made Thomas Gainsborough, an expert portraitist, throw down his paintbrush in frustration and claim the image defeated his talents.  Despite this setback, we can credit Gainsborough for perhaps the most famous depiction of Georgiana.  We also have Gainsborough to thank for creating a painting which became an obsession for many.

With a knowing look and a raised eyebrow she studies the viewer from under her powdered hair and cocked picture hat, a hat named after this very painting due to women rushing to their milliners asking for a hat just like as they saw in the picture.  The hat design was one of Georgiana's own, and had a resurgence in the Victorian era where it was known as Gainsborough hat.  The painting experienced a resurgence as well in the Victorian era when it vanished.  The famous painting we see today is only a portion of the original work that so frustrated Gainsborough in 1783.

A print showing the original layout

When Georgiana sat for Gainsborough in it was at the height of her popularity.  She was a fashion leader, active in politics, and a familiar face in the tabloids.  When she died prematurely in 1806 the nation mourned her death.  By 1830 she was all but forgotten.  So is the course of celebrity.  Somehow the painting once exhibited at the Royal Academy ended up in the possession of a simple schoolteacher who was vexed by the full-length portrait not fitting over her fireplace so she cut it down to just above the sitter's knee.  The painting then spent the next 40 or so years passing through various owners before the value was realized and it was auctioned at Christies in 1875.  The Morgan Family had every intention of buying the painting and if they had been successful the Duchess might be safe in the Morgan Library today.  Unfortunately Adam Worth, an American career criminal had already decided he must have the painting, no matter what the cost.  Once again the masterpiece was tragically cut down, this time from Worth stealing it while it hung on display. The weeping garden background that so typified Gainsborough's style was now lost forever from the painting.

1871 print showing where it was originally cut

Georgiana's portrait is now Worth's captive while he continues his crime sprees.  He creepily refers to it as "The Noble Lady" as if it isn't a inanimate object, and stores it in a false bottom trunk where it remains for about twenty-five years.  Five of those years Worth spent in jail and it was only when he was released he agree to let "The Lady...go home" in exchanged for some leniency.  Despite being hidden from the world, the portrait was well taken care of and in pristine condition  As soon as Pierpoint Morgan heard of the retrieval of the painting his father intended to buy he immediately forked over $150,000 for it, an unheard of amount for artwork at the time.  Morgan displays the Duchess to the public for a short period before doing the same thing Worth did when the painting was in his possession, keeping it all to himself.  Morgan selfishly refused to even let prints be made of the acclaimed, and now especially famous, painting.

Like Tolkien's Gollum and the ring, these men wanted to keep Gainsborough's portrait of Georgiana all to themselves, and like Tolkien's tale, the painting eventually made it to its rightful place and balance was restored.  In 1993 the portrait was once again up for auction and this time the then Duke of Devonshire knew where it needed to be.  As its former captor wished, the Duchess was finally going home.  The Duke and the Chatsworth trust bought the portrait so Georgiana could once again preside over her former home, Chatsworth, and be in the public eye rather than hidden away. After all, art is rarely meant to be hidden.