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This painting depicts a seated woman looking off to the left, resting her head on her right hand, our left, with her elbow on an abstract green surface. She has a fair complexion, a long nose, pale eyebrows, pale lips in a neutral expression, and reddish-brown hair styled up with a blue clip. She is wearing a pale mauve dress and shawl with a deep neckline, blue-green ribbon details, and puffed sleeves. A thin black belt is tied around her waist and there is a silver bracelet on her forearm. The background is painted in soft shades of blue and green, with a few highlights of pale yellow. An inscription in gold lettering in the top left corner identifies her as "Annetta D. of Edward Coke, wife of Lewis Cage of Milgate Kent."
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This painting depicts a seated woman looking off to the left, resting her head on her right hand, our left, with her elbow on an abstract green surface. She has a fair complexion, a long nose, pale eyebrows, pale lips in a neutral expression, and reddish-brown hair styled up with a blue clip. She is wearing a pale mauve dress and shawl with a deep neckline, blue-green ribbon details, and puffed sleeves. A thin black belt is tied around her waist and there is a silver bracelet on her forearm. The background is painted in soft shades of blue and green, with a few highlights of pale yellow. An inscription in gold lettering in the top left corner identifies her as "Annetta D. of Edward Coke, wife of Lewis Cage of Milgate Kent."

National Gallery of Art · Painting

Annetta Coke

Sir Joshua Reynolds

Date
1758
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 75.57 × 62.87 cm (29 3/4 × 24 3/4 in.) framed: 100.01 × 87.31 × 8.57 cm (39 3/8 × 34 3/8 × 3 3/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Accession number
2015.19.45
Credit line
Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection, 1926)
Time span
1751 to 1775
Department
CAB
Original NGA record Wikidata

Subjects and terms

  • painted surface
  • British
  • Acquired after publication of British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries
  • 3/4 figure seated
  • portrait
  • Coke, Annetta
Provenance

The sitter, Annetta Coke [1738-1791, later Mrs. Lewis Cage], Milgate, Kent, England.[1] by descent to her son, the Reverend Charles Cage [1769-1849].[2] (Stafford Gallery, London).[3] (Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell, London); purchased 1903 by William Andrews Clark [1839-1925], New York; bequest April 1926 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art. [1] The painting was probably commissioned in celebration of the sitter's marriage to Lewis Cage [d. 1800] on 17 January 1759. [2] According to Lorna Scott, the great-great-great-great granddaughter of the sitter, Charles Cage bequeathed the portrait to the owner of Milgate House. See correspondence dated 9 and 10 July 2003, between Scott and Corcoran curator Laura Coyle in NGA curatorial files. [3] See letter from Sir Ellis Waterhouse to Edward J. Nygren, Corcoran curator, dated 28 September 1977, in NGA curatorial files.

Inscription

upper left, possibly from the 19th century: ANNETTA. D. OF / EDWARD COKE, / WIFE OF LEWIS CAGE / OF MILGATE, KENT; lower left reverse: J. R. 1758

NGA object ID 195591. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.