Omai

Artist: Sir Joshua Reynolds (British, 1723–1792)

ca. 1774

European Art

Not on view
Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

25 1/8 × 22 × 3/4 in. (63.8 × 55.9 × 1.9 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of the Associates in Fine Arts

Accession Number

1936.128

Culture

British

Period

18th century

Classification

Paintings

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Sir Johua Reynolds (1723–1792), London, England; sale, Greenwood, London, April 15, 1796, lot 51; sold to Richard Clark, Esq. (1739–1831), London, England, 1796; sale, William Abbott, London, England, September 15, 1809, lot 32. John William Steers, Esq. (1744–1826), London, England, by 1813 [see note 1]; sale, Christie's, London, England, June 3, 1826, lot 45; sold to George Johnson Reveley (c. 1808–1877), London, 1826; sale, Christie’s, London, June 23, 1873, lot 119; sold to Cox. William McKay (dealer), London, and Knoedler & Company, London, July 11, 1917 (jointly owned); Knoedler & Company, London, 1917; sold to Evan Edward Charteris (1864–1940), London, England, October 1919. Sale, London, England; sold to Randall Robert Henry Davies (1866–1946), London, England [see note 2]; sold to P. & D. Colnaghi & Company, London, November 6, 1934; sold to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 1936

Note 1: The painting was exhibited at the British Institution in 1813, no. 135, as a work in the collection of John William Steers. (“British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom,” 1st ed., London: W. Bulmer and Company, 1813, p.20)

Note 2: The date of Davies’ ownership of the painting is unclear. Although Davies had noted that he purchased the painting before the first World War, no documentation is extant to verify his claim. (See P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., letter to the Gallery, October 9, 1936, accession file)
Bibliography
  • Martin Postle, Joshua Reynolds: The Creation of Celebrity (London: Tate Publishing, 2005), 216–217, fig. no. 66 (ca. 1775-1776)
  • Martin Postle, Joshua Reynolds e l'invenzione della celebrita (Ferrara: Ferrara Arte, 2005), 216–218, fig. no. 66, pl. 66
  • Harriet Guest, “Ornament and Use: Mai and Cook in London,” A New Imperial History: Culture, Identity, and Modernity in Britain and the Empire, 1660–1840, ed. Kathleen Wilson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 325, fig. 5
  • Kathleen Wilson, ed., A New Imperial History: Culture, Identity and Modernity in Britain and the Empire 1660-1840 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)
  • David Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds: A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, with subject paintings catalogued by Martin Postle, vol. 1 and 2 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), no. vol. 1, cat. no. 1362, p. 357, vol. 2, fig. 1190
  • Kathryn Cave, Angus Macintyre, and Kenneth J. Garlick, Joseph Farington Diaries, vol. 6 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978–1984), 2139, (the painting was seen in the collection of banker and collector John Steer by the artist, John Hoppner, who was "much captivated by the sketch… which He thought as fine as Titian")
  • E. H. McCormick, Omai: Pacific Envoy (Auckland and Oxford: Auckland University Press, 1977), 171, 173–174, fig. see also figs. 16, 29 and pl. 2
  • Andrew Carnduff Ritchie and Katherine Neilson, Selected Paintings and Sculpture from the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1972), no. 48, ill.
  • Chauncey B. Tinker, Painter and Poet: Studies in the Literary Relations of English Painting (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1938), 56–58
  • William Vine Cronin and Algernon Graves, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, vol. 2 and vol.3 (London: Henry Graves and Co., 1899–1901), 708 (as "Sketch of Reynolds's negro servant"), vol. 2
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

portraits, religious art

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