Mrs. George Baldwin (Jane Maltass, 1763–1839)

Jane Maltass, daughter of a merchant of the Levant Company, was born at Smyrna in Ottoman Turkey. She married George Baldwin, a merchant of Alexandria, who later became the British consul there. Mrs. Baldwin sat for Reynolds in London in February and March of 1782. A version of her portrait now at Bowood in Wiltshire is presumably the one exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1782, no. 159, as Portrait of a Grecian Lady. A second version was withdrawn from sale at Christie's, London, November 26, 2003, no. 4 (location unknown). Both works were in the artist’s studio at the time of his death, and this bust-length copy, which employs the same palette, was probably painted there as well by an assistant.

[2010; adapted from Baetjer 2009]

?Earl of Charlemont; William T. Blodgett, Paris and New York (by 1874–d. 1875); Mrs. William T. (Abby Blake) Blodgett, New York (1875–d. 1904); their children, William T. and Eleanor Blodgett, New York (1904–6)

Paris. Musée Historique du Costume. "Union centrale des beaux-arts appliqués à l'industrie, quatrième exposition," 1874, unnumbered cat. (p. 105, as by Reynolds, lent by W. T. Blodgett).

New York. American Federation of Arts. "English Portraits and Landscapes (circulating exhibition)," 1951–52 (as by Reynolds).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Eighteenth-Century Woman," December 12, 1981–September 5, 1982, unnumbered cat. (p. 53, as by Reynolds).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500–1800," September 9, 2013–January 5, 2014, no. 100A.

Ernest Chesneau. Les artistes célèbres. Vol. 21, Joshua Reynolds. Paris, [1887], p. 73, ill. p. 29 (etching by Paul Rajon), as by Reynolds, in the collection of Mrs. W. T. Blodgett.

Algernon Graves and William Vine Cronin. A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds P.R.A. Vol. 1, London, 1899, p. 45, as "a replica (30 x 25 in.) [sic] of a portion" of one of the two full-lengths of Mrs. Baldwin.

Walter Armstrong. Sir Joshua Reynolds, First President of the Royal Academy. London, 1900, p. 192, as one of two replicas of the Lansdowne portrait of Mrs. Baldwin.

George H. Story. "Four Paintings by English Masters." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 1 (February 1906), p. 48, ill. after p. 48, as by Reynolds, from the collection of the Earl of Charlemont.

Connoisseur 90 (November 1932), ill. p. 315, as by Reynolds.

Ellis K. Waterhouse. Reynolds. London, 1941, p. 73, "bust copy".

Millia Davenport. The Book of Costume. New York, 1948, vol. 2, p. 780, no. 2200, ill. (cropped).

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 83.

Hugh Belsey. "New exhibition rooms at Bowood House, Calne, Wiltshire." Connoisseur 204 (July 1980), p. 231, as "another version" of the Lansdowne picture.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 187, ill., as Attributed to Sir Joshua Reynolds.

David Mannings and Martin Postle. Sir Joshua Reynolds: A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings (The Subject Pictures catalogued by Martin Postle). New Haven, 2000, vol. 1, p. 71, no. 101a, as a "copy (?cut down)," formerly [sic] belonging to the Metropolitan Museum.

Katharine Baetjer. British Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1575–1875. New York, 2009, pp. 86–87, no. 37, ill. (color).