Head of a Girl

Artist Sir Thomas Lawrence British, 1769–1830

Datelate 18th–early 19th century

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsDiam.: 18 in. (45.7 cm)
Frame: 23 3/4 x 23 3/4 x 3 1/4 in. (60.3 x 60.3 x 8.3 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Hanes

Object numberG.79.6.14

On View

On view

ProvenanceCreated London, late 18th–early 19th century. Sir Charles Clow Tennant, 1st Baronet (1823–1906), London and The Glen, Innerleithen, Scotland, by 1896; to his son Edward Priaulx Tennant (1859–1920), 1st Baron Glenconner, London and The Glen; to his son Christopher Grey Tennant (1899–1983), 2nd Baron Glenconner, London and The Glen [1]; to his son Colin Christopher Paget Tennant (1926–2010), 3rd Baron Glenconner, London and The Glen; [consigned through Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, no. 42494, May 17, 1979] [2]; J. Gordon Hanes, Jr. (1916–1995) and Helen Hanes (née Helen Greever Copenhaver) (1917–2013), Winston-Salem, NC, September 21, 1979; given to NCMA, 1979 [3].

[1] Pencil annotation in version of the “Catalogue of the Pictures forming the Collection of Sir Charles Tennant, Bart.”, (1896) digitized by the Getty Research Institute notes that the NCMA painting was at The Glen with Lord Glenconner in 1951.
[2] Label on stretcher and purchase receipt in curatorial file. Dates given via correspondence with National Gallery, London, May 14, 2026: in the Agnew Stock Books (NGA27), the painting is label no. 42494, stock no. BO/S 8261, and the seller was “Hon. Colin Tennant.”
[3] Previously identified as the work in the sale from the collection of M. Devilder (Paris and Roubaix, France): Galerie Charpentier, Paris, December 9, 1952, no. 19, and again at Galerie Charpentier, Paris, December 9, 1961, no. 28. Lot 19 in the 1952 sale is the version at the Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University (no. 80.030.005) and not the NCMA painting. No documentation or catalogue for a December 9, 1961 Galerie Charpentier sale has yet been found. The NCMA painting was also previously identified as lot no. 109 in the Sotheby & Co., London, July 15, 1964 sale, sold as property of a lady and bought by Leggatt Brothers, London. This is also the version at the Johnson Museum of Art.
Published ReferencesC. Morland Agnew, Catalogue of the Pictures forming the Collection of Sir Charles Tennant, Bart., of 40, Grosvenor Square and The Glen, Innerleithen (London: Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., Ld., 1896), as “Study of a Female Head.”

"La Chronique des Arts," (Supplement to the Gazette des Beaux-Arts) (March 1981), no. 207, illus. 38.

Kenneth Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence (Oxford: Phaidon Press Ltd., 1989), cat. no. 885, illus.
Exhibition HistoryHickory, NC, The Hickory Museum of Art, “Beyond Likeness: Contemporary Considerations of the Portrait,” November 1-December 31, 1997; Wilmington, NC, St. John’s Museum of Art, April 30-June 28, 1998; Fayetteville, NC, Fayetteville Museum of Art, July 11-August 30, 1998; Asheville, NC, Asheville Art Museum, September 17, 1998-January 2, 1999; Greenville, NC, Greenville Museum of Art, January 14-February 28, 1999, brochure. (Outreach exhibition)

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, "Partial Figure," February 14-August 23, 2026. Object Rights Statement

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