Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-joshua-reynolds-444" aria-label="More by Sir Joshua Reynolds" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir Joshua Reynolds</a>
Hon Miss Monckton
Bequeathed by Sir Edward Stern 1933
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
adults
animals: mammals
architecture
aristocrat
arts and entertainment
bench
collector / patron
Cork, Mary Boyle, Countess of
dog, King Charles spaniel
dress: nations/regions
estate
features
fine arts and music
furnishings
individuals: female
landscape
male
man
Monckton, Mary, Hon.
named individuals
nudes
objects
people
portraits
royalty and social rank
sculpture, classical
sitting
smiling
society
Turkey
urn
woman
wooded
work and occupations
<p>The Honourable Mary Monckton (1746–1840) was an eminent and charismatic literary hostess. Celebrities including the Prince Regent, poet Lord Byron and actress Sarah Siddons attended her social gatherings. Monckton was known to welcome her guests while seated, which Reynolds echoes in this painting. He paints her aged 29 and dressed fashionably. The elaborately carved urn to her left indicates she is in the grounds of a landed estate. These vast plots of land were available for leisure typically to those of a high rank and social status.</p><p><em>Gallery label, April 2023</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
12 February 2005 – 25 September 2005
2005-09-25
12 February 2005 – 1 May 2005
2005-05-01
2005-02-12
Palazzo dei Diamanti (Ferrara, Italy)
26 May 2005 – 25 September 2005
2005-09-25
2005-05-26
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2005-02-12
Joshua Reynolds
Exhibition
5 December 2008 – 17 October 2010
2010-10-17
5 December 2008 – 17 October 2010
2010-10-17
2008-12-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2008-12-05
Portraiture 1660-1800
Collection based display
26 November 2018 – 14 July 2019
2019-07-14
26 November 2018 – 14 July 2019
2019-07-14
2018-11-26
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2018-11-26
Joshua Reynolds
Collection based display
11 September 2019 – 31 May 2020
2020-05-31
11 September 2019 – 16 February 2020
2020-02-16
2019-09-11
Musée du Luxembourg (Paris, France)
29 February 2020 – 31 May 2020
2020-05-31
2020-02-29
External
2019-09-11
Gainsborough to Turner: The Golden Age of English Painting
Loan-out
26 September 2022
26 September 2022
2022-09-26
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2022-09-26
Gallery 14
Collection based display
The Hon. Miss Monckton
support: 2400 × 1473 mm
frame: 2670 × 1750 × 145 mm
Bequeathed by Sir Edward Stern 1933
<p>The Honourable Mary Monckton (1746-1840) was the youngest child and only surviving daughter of John Monckton, first Viscount Galway (1695-1751), and his second wife Jane. Until her marriage in 1786 to Edmund Boyle, 8<sup>th</sup><sup></sup><sup></sup> Earl of Corke (1742-98), Mary lived with her widowed mother in Charles Street, Berkeley Square, London. Well read and versed in the arts, she was regarded as among the most engaging of the capital's 'blue-stockings' (society women renowned for their literary prowess and social skills). Her parties were celebrated for their informal atmosphere, regular guests including the author Samuel Johnson (1709-84), the Whig politician Edmund Burke (1729-97), and the great tragic actress Sarah Siddons (1755-1831). The novelist Fanny Burney (1752-1840) described Mary Monckton in 1782 as 'between thirty and forty, very short, very fat, but handsome, splendidly and fantastically dressed, rouged not unbecomingly, yet evidently and palpably desirous of gaining notice and admiration. She has an easy levity in her air, manner, voice, and discourse' (C.R. Leslie and Tom Taylor, <i>Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds</i>, 2 vols., London, 1865, vol.2, pp.278-9). Reynolds vividly captures Burney's description in this beguiling full-length <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a>.  

</p><p>As with so many of Reynolds's full-length female portraits of the period, Mary Monckton is depicted in a generalised <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscape</span></a> setting, with dense woodland to the right and, to the left, a stretch of undefined parkland leading in the far distance to mountains. She leans upon a plain stone pedestal, behind which is an elaborately carved urn, an indication of the rank and social status of the sitter, who is not simply located in the open countryside but in the grounds of a landed estate. She wears a flowing gown of white silk, around her waist a fashionable pale blue, embroidered 'Turkish' scarf edged with gold tassels. At her feet is curled her King Charles spaniel, the presence of a pet dog being the height of fashion in Reynolds's male and female portraits alike. It is, however, Mary Monckton's mischievous expression that captures the viewer's attention, evoking her animated presence.

</p><p>The picture was probably begun on 13 March 1777, when Reynolds recorded a sitting with 'Miss Monkton' [<i>sic</i>] in his pocket book at 2 p.m. Further sittings took place in March and December.  She may also have sat in 1778, although Reynolds's pocket book for that year is missing. Mary Monckton was aged twenty-nine and still single at the time Reynolds painted this portrait. At that time it presumably hung in her mother's house in Charles Street, and must have been a prominent decorative feature at Miss Monckton's <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/salon" title="Glossary definition for 'Salon'"><span>salons</span></a>. Given the demeanour and pose of the Mary Monckton in Reynolds's portrait, it is fascinating to learn that at her parties she made a point of receiving her guests seated. Thus the portrait acted both as a substitute for her living presence when she herself was absent and, when she was there, a pictorial counterpart to this diminutive woman's larger-than-life personality.

</p><p><b>Further reading:<br/></b><b><br/></b>David Mannings and Martin Postle, <i>Sir Joshua Reynolds. A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings</i>, 2 vols., New Haven and London 2000, vol.1,p.336, vol.2, p.482, fig.1241

</p><p>Martin Postle<br/>December 2000</p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>The Honourable Mary Monckton (1746–1840) was an eminent and charismatic literary hostess. Celebrities including the Prince Regent, poet Lord Byron and actress Sarah Siddons attended her social gatherings. Monckton was known to welcome her guests while seated, which Reynolds echoes in this painting. He paints her aged 29 and dressed fashionably. The elaborately carved urn to her left indicates she is in the grounds of a landed estate. These vast plots of land were available for leisure typically to those of a high rank and social status.</p>
</div>

Online caption
2023-11-30T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions adults animals: mammals architecture aristocrat arts and entertainment bench collector / patron Cork, Mary Boyle, Countess of dog, King Charles spaniel dress: nations/regions estate features fine arts and music furnishings individuals: female landscape male man Monckton, Mary, Hon. named individuals nudes objects people portraits royalty and social rank sculpture, classical sitting smiling society Turkey urn woman wooded work and occupations