James Duff, Second Earl of Fife (1729–1809)

Artist Francis Cotes British, 1726–1770

Date1765

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions94 1/4 x 58 1/4 in. (239.4 x 148 cm)
Frame: 105 1/4 x 69 1/8 in. (267.3 x 175.6 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the State of North Carolina

Object number52.9.67

On View

Not on view

ProvenanceCommissioned by James Duff, 2nd Earl of Fife (1729–1809), Duff House, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 1765; to his brother Alexander Duff, 3rd Earl of Fife (1731–1811), Duff House, Aberdeenshire, Scotland; to his son James Duff, 4th Earl of Fife (1776–1857); to his nephew James Duff, 5th Earl of Fife (1814–1879); to his son Alexander William George Duff, 1st Duke of Fife (1849–1912); to his wife HRH Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife (1867–1931); [Christie, Manson & Woods, London, July 18, 1924, no. 97 [1]; [Gooden & Fox, London] [2]; William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925); [his sale, Anderson Galleries, New York, February 17–19, 1926, no. 43]; Adrian Edsberg; [Vose Galleries, Boston] [3]; [Edward I. Farmer, Inc., New York] [4]; [Edward I. Farmer Inc. Sale, Parke-Bernet, New York, April 16–19, 1947, no. 897]; [Scott & Fowles, New York] [5]; sold to NCMA, 1952.

[1] A copy of the painting was made at the time of the sale in 1924, which still hangs in Duff House.
[2] Annotated copy in NCMA library notes this buyer.
[3] In his 1976 catalogue of Cotes’s paintings, Edward Mead Johnson notes in the provenance for the NCMA painting (cat. no. 173) that Vose Galleries was the buyer of the painting at the Leverhulme Sale. However, an annotated version of the sales catalogue and a clipping from an article reporting the results of the sale (“91 Leverhulme Paintings Sell for $110,745”, New York Herald Tribune, September 25, 1925), both report the buyer as Adrian Edsberg (both are in the object file). No further information on Edsberg has yet been found, so it’s unclear whether he purchased the painting as an agent on behalf of Vose Galleries.
[4] Edward I. Farmer (1872–1942) was a dealer in Chinese art and European antiques, who had galleries on W and E 56th St, New York. The 1947 sale was the final step in closing out his estate, and liquidated the remaining stock of Farmer’s galleries.
[5] Invoice from Scott & Fowles, NCMA object file, 1952, notes an ex. coll. for the painting as “H.R.H. The Princess Royal”. It’s probable that at the time of acquisition, this was mistaken for a reference to Charlotte Augusta Mathilda (1766–1828), Princess Royal of Great Britain & Ireland and Queen of Württemberg, whose name has long been in the Museum’s provenance for this painting. This apparently began with the Museum’s accession sheet for the work in 1952 and appears in print first in W. R. Valentiner’s Catalogue of the Museum’s paintings (1956), no. 77. No connection with the collection of Augusta Mathilda has been found, as the painting was in the collections of the Earls of Fife from its completion in 1765 through 1924.

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