My wife's ancestors - Maltass - Contents

Jane Maltass

• References:
  • "Principal Accessions by Gift", George H. Story, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New York, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Feb 1906), pp. 48-49.

• Sources yet to be consulted:
  • Thraliana - The Diary of Mrs Hester Lynch Thrale 1776-1809, ed. K.C. Balderston, 1942, Vol.I, p.530.
  • Dr. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 1854, Vol.III, p.160, "A Portrait of a Greek Lady".
  • Reynolds painting Bibliography
  • Martin Postle at the Tate is an expert on the Reynolds painting.

Jane Maltass ("Mrs. Baldwin") in Eastern Dress.
Portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1782.
Now at Compton Verney art gallery, Warwickshire.
From abcgallery.com. See terms of use.

Jane Maltass,
born 26th June 1763, Smyrna, Turkey,
known as the "pretty Greek" in London society (she was not Greek, but the W European merchants lived among the Greek community of W Turkey),
"This pretty Greek as we call her" [Diary of Mrs Hester Lynch Thrale],
she travelled widely,
when she visited Vienna in 1780 (age 17), Emperor Joseph (born 1741) was so entranced with her beauty he commissioned a portrait bust of her,
mar pre-1782 to George Baldwin,
he was a rich merchant of Alexandria, Egypt,
he was the British Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Teheran, Persia,
her portrait was painted in Eastern dress ("a fancy dress, reputedly Persian") by Sir Joshua Reynolds 1782 (her age 19),
she lived in England for a number of years,
her intelligence and beauty attracted many admirers including the Prince of Wales (future George IV, born 1762), and even old Dr Johnson (died 1784) asked permission to kiss her,
George became British Consul-General in Egypt,
the marriage was unhappy,
she died 1839, age 76 yrs,
she is mentioned in [Goulburn, 1892].

Jane Maltass. Detail of above.
From abcgallery.com. See terms of use.

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• The portrait of Jane Maltass ("Mrs. Baldwin") by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1782:
  1. The portrait was done by Reynolds for his own interest and was not given to the Maltass/Baldwin family,
     after Reynolds' death it was owned by his niece the Marchioness of Thomond,
     then owned by Richard Westall,
     bought by 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne 1813, it hung at Lansdowne House in Berkeley Square, London, then later at his family's seat Bowood House, Wiltshire, until they sold it 2004,
     sold for £3.4m at Sotheby's in 2004, the 2nd highest auction price ever reached for a work by Reynolds,
     now in Compton Verney art gallery, Warwickshire.
     See search and image search.

  2. There is a second, identical copy of this picture, mainly painted by Reynolds' studio assistants,
     labelled as just by Reynolds for many years,
     it was purchased c.1892 by R. Hall McCormick, whose family owned the Chicago Tribune,
     [Rees family papers] say "Mr. McCormick of Boston" owned it temp c.1910,
     it was acquired by William Randolph Hearst 1920,
     featured on cover of Harpers Magazine Sept 1924, (todo) see article, p.505,
     Hearst sold it 1945,
     was believed to have been "lost" for more than 50 years,
     rediscovered in a private US collection, was up for auction at Christie's in 2003 (and here),
     but it was withdrawn from auction when it emerged it was mainly by Reynolds' assistants.

  3. There is a further copy of this picture, from the "Workshop of Sir Joshua Reynolds",
     was in the collection of the Earl of Charlemont,
     then in Blodgett family,
     presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1906, see [Story, 1906],
     still at Metropolitan Museum of Art today.