Two by Sir Joshua

Two of the most important paintings of Sir Joshua Reynolds, leading portrait painter of the English school in the 18th Century, were purchased by Americans at the private sale of the late Sir Charles Tennant (father of Mrs. H. H. Asquith) through Duveen Brothers, New York. The buyers and prices were not announced. The pictures are:

1) Portrait of Lady Diana Crosbie, daughter of Lord George Sackville, one of Sir Joshua's greatest full-length portraits, comparable with the famous Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse (owned by Henry Huntington) and Nelly O'Brien (in the Wallace Collection, London). The painting was first exhibited at the Royal Academy of 1779, and depicts Lady Crosbie, then but 21 years old, charmingly posed on a lawn, elaborately gowned and coifed, with a landscape background.

2) The Young Fortune Teller, portraits of two children of the Duke of Marlborough, Lord Henry and Lady Charlotte Spencer, in an Italian landscape, the little girl costumed as a gypsy and reading the palm of the little boy, five years old, dressed in a red satin Van Dyck suit. The picture is full of childish grace and animation.