The Oddie Children

Artist Sir William Beechey British, 1753–1839

Date1789

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions72 x 71 7/8 in. (182.9 x 182.6 cm)
Frame: 86 3/4 x 83 3/4 in. (220.3 x 212.7 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the State of North Carolina

Object number52.9.65

On View

Not on view

ProvenanceCommissioned by Henry Hoyle Oddie (1744–1830), Carey Street London and Barnwell Castle Northamptonshire [1]; The Oddie Family until 1910; Sir John Charles Robinson, London (?); D. G. Reid, New York, January 1912; consigned by Daniel R. Topping, New York, August, 1950; Jane Dixon Topping, Southampton, NY [2]; [Knoedler Galleries, New York, October 1951, no. A4718]; sold to NCMA, 1952 [3].

[1] Beechey's account book of 1789 mentions the payment for this commission. Transcribed in William Roberts, Sir William Beechey, R.A. (1907), p. 39.
[2] Listed as Mrs. John R. Topping in Knoedler Stock Book 9, Page 231, Row 27, stock no. A4718.
[3] Listed as North Carolina State Art Society in Knoedler Stock Book 10, Page 65, Row 10, stock no. A4718. Sale date February 19, 1952.Published ReferencesW. Roberts, Beechey (1907), 39, 222.

Art News (April 1956), illus. 46.

C.W. Stanford, British and American Paintings and Sculpture (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1956), 20-21, illus.

W. R. Valentiner, Catalogue of Paintings: Including Three Sets of Tapestries (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1956), no. 75, illus. (b-w).

Charles W. Stanford, Jr., Selections from British and American Painting and Sculpture (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1967), no. 9, illus. (color).

British Paintings to 1900: Catalogue of Paintings, Volume 2, 2nd ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1969), no. 64, illus. (b-w).

The Mint Museum of Art Presents British Paintings from the Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art (exhibition catalogue) (Charlotte: Mint Museum of Art, 1973), cat. no. 15, illus. (b-w).

JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 243, no. 17 (May 2, 1980), 1707, illus. (color) cover.

Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 122.

Gladys S. Blizzard, Come Look with Me: Enjoying Art with Children (Charlottesville, VA: Thomasson-Grant, 1990), 13, illus. (color) 12 and frontispiece. Second edition (Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc., 2006)

Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 80.

Thereses M. Southgate, MD, The Art of JAMA (St. Louis: Mosby, 1996), 96-97, 205-206, illus. (color) 97.

Joseph P. Covington, entry for The Oddie Children, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998), 163, illus. (color), detail (color) 160.

The Changing Face of Childhood: British Children's Portraits and their Influence in Europe (exhibition catalogue) (Frankfurt: Städel Museum, Dulwich: Dulwich Picture Gallery, 2007), cat. no. 12, discussed 24, 132, 134-35, illus. (color) 133, details (color) 12, 86.

Hugh Belsey, "Raising children," (exhibition review) Apollo 166, no 547 (October 2007), mentioned and illus. (color) 111.

Joseph P. Covington, entry for The Oddie Children, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 340, illus. (color) 341.

Iris Wien, "Rousseaus Erben? Angelika Kauffmann und das Bristiche Kinderportrat," The Yearbook of the Vorarlberger Landesmuseumsverein, (Bregenz, Austria: Landesmuseumsverein, 2017), illus. (color).Exhibition HistoryCharlotte, NC, Mint Museum of Art, "The Mint Museum of Art Presents British Paintings from the Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art," September 16-December 30, 1973, cat. no. 15, illus. (b-w).

Frankfurt, Germany, Städel Museum, "The Changing Face of Childhood: British Children's Portraits and their Influence in Europe," April 20-July 15, 2007; Dulwich, England, Dulwich Picture Gallery, August 1-November 4, 2007, cat. no. 12, illus. (color).

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “History and Mystery: Discoveries in the NCMA British Collection,” August 6, 2016–June 25, 2017.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–May 29, 2024. Object Rights Statement

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