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].
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withdrawn from auction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.
