Major General Andrew Hay

Artist Sir Henry Raeburn British, 1756–1823

Datecirca 1811

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions50 x 40 in. (127 x 101.6 cm)
Frame: 59 5/8 x 50 x 3 1/4 in. (151.4 x 127 x 8.3 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineGift of John Hay Whitney

Object numberG.52.15.1

On View

Not on view

ProvenanceCommissioned by the sitter, circa 1811; created Edinburgh, circa 1811; Major General Andrew Hay (1762–1814), Banffshire, Scotland, and Hampshire, England; to his daughter, Elizabeth Helen Hay Williams (b. 1785), Hyde Park, London [1]; to her daughter, Eliza Anne Margaret Hall Maxwell (née Williams; d. 1907), Dargavel, Scotland [2]. [Christie, Manson & Woods, London, May 10, 1912, no. 53] [3]; [Knoedler & Co., New York, no. 12860, May 1912; joint ownership with Colnaghi & Co., London, no. CA3312] [4]; Colonel Ambrose Monell (1873–1921), Tuxedo Park, New York, March 1916 [5]; [his sale, Anderson Galleries, November 28, 1930, no. 60]. Flora Payne Whitney (1842–1893), New York; to her son William Payne Whitney (1876–1968) and his wife Helen Julia Hay (1875–1944), New York by 1938 [6]; to their son John Hay Whitney (1904–1982), New York; given to NCMA, 1952.

[1] Wife of Thomas Orde Williams (1793–1865)
[2] At the time of John Hall Maxwell's (1812–1866) death in 1866, his obituary (The Morning Post, August 30, 1866) noted that he was survived by a widow and six children, two sons and four daughters.
[3] Knoedler's stock book demonstrates that they (or Colnaghi) were the buyers at the Christie's sale in 1912. A 1987 letter in the NCMA files from the director of the Joslyn Art Museum (owners of the pendant portrait of Mrs. Elisabeth Robinson Hay, no. 52 in the 1912 sale) indicates that this sale was from the property of a descendent of the Hay family. The catalogue for the sale notes only "The Property of a Gentleman." It is likely that the painting passed to Eliza Maxwell's son or another family member after her death in 1907, after which it was sold. No further information has yet been found about Eliza's descendents. In the NCMA files a "dealer folio," presumably from Knoedler, says that it was Eliza Maxwell who sold the painting together with its pendant.
[4] Knoedler Stock Book 6, Page 29, Row 16, Stock no. 12860 (Getty Research Institute). Knoedler's stock book also notes the joint ownership of the painting with Colnaghi and gives another identification number, which is found on the stretcher: 5299.
[5] Noted as buyer in Knoedler stock book (see previous note). Previously misspelled in NCMA records as "Ambrose Morrell."
[6] Exhibition label on stretcher reverse, New York World's Fair, 1938, notes the lender as "Mrs. Payne Whitney." Also listed as the lender of the painting for the 1938 exhibition at Jacques Seligmann Galleries, New York.

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