My wife's ancestors - Hunter - Contents

Portrait of Kitty Hunter by Joshua Reynolds (the Crawfurd picture)

A portrait of Kitty Hunter (born 1740, died 1795) by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Inherited by the Crawfurd family.

Date after 1762:
- Kitty is holding a mask. This is said to be an allusion to the masked ball after which she eloped with Pembroke in 1762.
- If true, the portrait must be 1762 or later.
- This cannot be definitely linked to lists of sitters for Reynolds. Though note the pocket book / sitters list for 1763 is lost.
- There is a "Miss Hunter" sitting for Reynolds in Dec 1769. This could be her.
- Raymond Crawfurd thinks that is her and this portrait was painted in 1769.
- [Henry Graves and Co., 1865] thinks this portrait is 1758. But this must be confusion with the Longleat picture.
- The National Trust thinks this picture was "probably painted in 1763". Apparently their source is [Mannings, 2000].
Inherited by Crawfurd:
- Kitty (died 1795) gave the portrait to Gibbs Crawfurd, MP (died 1793). [Graves and Cronin, vol.4] says she gave it to him about 1785.
- The Crawfurds of Ardmillan were friends of the Hunter family. Raymond Crawfurd thinks Gibbs Crawfurd stood by Kitty after her scandals, and still received her.
- [Graves and Cronin, vol.2] shows this portrait was in the possession of Robert Crawfurd as at 1856.
- [Leslie and Taylor, 1865] say it is then in the possession of "Mr. Craufurd".
- [Henry Graves and Co., 1865] prints an engraving, and says the original is in the possession of Robert Crawfurd, of Colchester.
- Inherited by the Crawfurd family, descendants of Gibbs Crawfurd.

The original portrait

This is the original in the possession of the Crawfurd family, descendants of Gibbs Crawfurd, MP (died 1793).

The original portrait held by the Crawfurd family.
See larger and full size.

"The Lady with the Mask", a portrait of a French noblewoman (some debate over who). Engraving of 1746.
From British Museum. Also here.
See a version labelled "Madame de Mouchy" at the Fitzwilliam Museum.
Raymond Crawfurd says this well-known French picture was the model for Reynolds' picture of Kitty. Reynolds often used existing pictures by others as templates.

Studio copy

A copy of the portrait of Kitty Hunter.
From "Studio of Sir Joshua Reynolds".
Sold as Lot 33 at Auction 8284 (Old Master Paintings), Christie's, Oct 1995.
This is clearly different to the original held by the Crawfurd family.

A photo of a copy of the portrait. This was emailed about 2011 from Stuart Wyndham Murray-Threipland to his stepson the 18th Earl of Pembroke.
It is unknown how Murray-Threipland got it, but it very much looks like a colour photo of the above studio portrait.
The dimensions of the digital photo may (or may not) be slightly distorted.
See full size and original PNG.

An edit of the above image to change to (hopefully) more correct dimensions and brighten the colours.
See full size and original TIF.

Wilton House has put this copy in a frame on the wall.
Again this is a photo of a copy, not the original copy, or the original.
See larger and full size.

Engraving

Kitty Hunter.
Engraving 1865 by Robert B. Parkes of the Reynolds portrait.
From NPG.
See larger and full size.

The engraving printed as Plate 42 in [Henry Graves and Co., 1865, vol.2].

Notes on the picture.
From Part 27 of [Henry Graves and Co., 1865, vol.1].
This has various errors. Kitty was not a Maid of Honour to the Queen. Her son is confused with Colonel Robert Montgomery.