Ralph Bell (1720–1801)

Artist Thomas Gainsborough British, 1727–1788

Date1772–1774

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions92 1/4 x 61 1/8 in. (234.3 x 155.3 cm)
Frame: 102 x 71 3/4 in. (259.1 x 182.2 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the North Carolina State Art Society (Robert F. Phifer Bequest) and the State of North Carolina

Object numberG.52.9.70

On View

Not on view

ProvenanceCommissioned in 1772 by Ralph Bell, Esq., Thirsk Hall, North Yorkshire; then by family descent to Reginald Bell, Esq., until 1897; (J. H. Ward, London, 1897); (Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London, 1987-1901); (Forbes and Patterson, London, 1901); Norman Forbes Robertson, London; his sale, Christie, Manson and Woods, May 19, 1911, lot. 104, bt. Gilbert; John Scrimgeour, Esq., London; Scrimgeour family, by descent; sale, Sotheby’s, London, May 20, 1953, bt. Croft; (Newhouse Galleries, New York); acquired by the NCMA from Newhouse, 1954.Published ReferencesWalter Armstrong, Gainsborough and His Place in English Art (London, 1898), 192. Revised ed. (London, 1904), 58.

Ellis Waterhouse, "Preliminary checklist of Portraits by Thomas Gainsborough," Walpole Society 1948-50 33 (Oxford, 1953), 8.

W.R. Valentiner, Catalogue of Paintings: Including Three Sets of Tapestries (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1956), no. 79 (as John Scrimgoeur).

Ellis Waterhouse, Gainsborough (London: Edward Hulton, 1958), 54, no. 61; 100, no. 770.

Madeleine Rocher Jauneau, 1964 Calendrier, Album Annuel Beaux Arts (Grenoble: B. Arthaud), illus. no. 48.

Charles W. Stanford, Masterpieces in the North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1966), no. 7 (as Portrait of John Scrimgoeur), illus. (b-w).

British Paintings to 1900: Catalogue of Paintings, Vol. 2, 2nd ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art 1969), no. 73 (as John Scrimgeour), illus. (b-w).

Robert F. Phifer Collection (exhibition catalogue) (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1973), 28, illus. (b-w) 29.

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. 9, illus. (b-w).

John Hayes, Thomas Gainsborough (London: The Tate Gallery, 1980), 105, illus. 106).

Wolfgang Schivelbusch, Das Paradies, der Geschmack und die Vernunft: Eine Geschichte der Genussmittel (Frankfurt: Ullstein Sachbuch, 1983), 146, illus.

Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 121.

Hugh Belsey, "A Case of Mistaken Identity: Thomas Gainsborough's Ralph Bell," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 15 (1991), 44-52, illus. (color) 43.

David C. Goist, "Technical Notes on Gainsborough's Ralph Bell," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 15 (1991), 53-56, illus. (b-w) 54, (b-w x-radiograph detail) 55.

Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 78.

Dennis Weller, entry for Ralph Bell, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998), 164, illus. (color).

Madeline Siefke Estill, "Colonial New England Silver Snuff, Tobacco, and Patch Boxes: Indices of Gentility," New England Silver & Silversmithing: 1620 - 1815, Jeannine Falino and Gerald W.R. Ward, eds. (Boston: The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 2001), briefly discussed 44, illus. (b-w) 45.

Dennis P. Weller, entry for Ralph Bell (1720-1801), in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 338, illus. (color) 339.

Hugh Belsey, Thomas Gainsborough: The Portraits, Fancy Pictures and Copies after Old Masters, Vol. 1 (New Haven and London: Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, 2019), no. 73, illus. (color) 79, pl. 73.
Exhibition HistoryLondon, England, The Grosvenor Gallery, 1885, no. 43.

York, England, Fine Art Gallery, “Yorkshire Fine Art and Industrial Exhibition,” opening, July 1866, cat. no. 402.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Tobacco and Smoking in Art,” October 14-December 4, 1960, cat. no. 5, illus. (b-w) 103.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “The Robert F. Phifer Collection,” March 31-May 13, 1973, 28, illus. (b-w) 29.

Charlotte, 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. 9, illus. (b-w)

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

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