Sent by the artist to Sir James Montgomery, 2nd Baronet, Queensberry House, Edinburgh, 1795 [1]

By descent to Sir Graham Graham-Montgomery, still in 1882 [2]

[Agnew & Sons, London, by 1929] [3]

Sold to Percy R. Plyne Jr. (1896–1941), New York, 1929 

[Consigned to Newhouse Galleries, New York, ca. 1940] [4]

[Wildenstein & Co., New York] [5]

Sold to Charles R. Blyth (1883–1959), Hillsborough

By descent to his wife, Mrs. Katherine Ramsay Blyth (1902–1975)

Gift to the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, 1961

Administrative transfer to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1972

[1] Sir James Montgomery was the first-cousin of the sitter’s second wife, Viscountess Anne Townshend. 

[2] Per London 1882, no. 50. 

[3] Per copy of bill of sale from Thomas Agnew & Sons to Percy Pyne, January 30, 1929, curatorial file, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. 

[4] Per letter from Bert Newhouse to Dr. Walter Heil, November 8, 1940, curatorial file, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco: “The painting does not belong to us but to one of our clients whose monetary affairs have been bad and continued to get worse until today he is greatly in need of money and I believe would accept a ridiculous offer for the picture.” 

[5] Per letter from E.J. Rousuck (Wildenstein & Co.) to Dr. Walter Heil, April 24, 1961, curatorial file, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

London, Royal Academy, 1882. “Old Masters,” no. 50.

Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy, 1883. “Works of Old Masters and Scottish National Portraits,” no. 159.

Exhibition of works by The Old Masters and by Deceased Masters of the British School, exh. cat., London: WM. Clowes and Sons (printers to the Royal Academy), 1882, pg. 14, no. 50. 

Maxwell, Sir Herbert, George Romney, London: The Walter Scott Publishing Company, 1902, pg. 192, no. 400.

Paston, George,  Catalogue of pictures painted by George Romney, London: Methuen & Co., 1903, pg. 204.

Ward, Humphrey, and W. Roberts, Romney, vol. 2, London: Thos. Agnew & Sons, 1904, pg. 159.

Pointon,  Marcia R., Hanging the Head: Portraiture and Social Formation in Eighteenth-Century England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993, pg. 50. 

Maclean-Eltham, Barry, Romney Paintings in Public Collections, Kendal, UK: Romney Society, 1996, pg. 57.

Kidson, Alex, George Romney: A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, 3 vols., New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2015, vol. 2,  pg. 582, no. 1307, repr.; vol. 3, pg. 888.