Miss Beatrix Lister

By inheritance to the sitter's son, Thomas Lister Parker [1779-1858], Browsholme, York County, until at least 1817;[1] probably by inheritance to Thomas Lister, 4th baron Ribblesdale [1854-1925], Gisburne Park, near Clitheroe, York County, from at least 1878;[2] purchased 2 July 1918 by (Thos. Agnew & Sons., Ltd., London); sold 27 February 1919 to Lady Michelham [d. 1927], London; sold 28 November 1921 back to (Thos. Agnew & Sons., Ltd., London);[3] sold 17 May 1923 to (Arthur J. Sulley & Co., London).[4] Mr. and Mrs. William Larimer Mellon, Pittsburgh, by 1925;[5] their daughter, Margaret Mellon Hitchcock [Mrs. Thomas Mellon Hitchcock, b. 1901], New York; gift 1995 to NGA. [1] He lent the painting to an exhibition in 1817. [2] The sitter's brother, Thomas Lister [1752-1826], was created the first Baron Ribblesdale in 1797. According to Algernon Graves and William Vine Cronin (_A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds_, 4 vols., London, 1899: 2:588-589), the painting probably returned to the sitter's brother's descendants after the death of her son. The painting is recorded as being at Gisburne Park in a publication of 1878 (Thomas Dunham Whitaker, _The History and Antiquities of the Deanery of Craven in the County of York_, edited by A.W. Morant, 3rd ed., Leeds and London, 1878: 53). "Lord Ribblesdale" lent the painting to two exhibitions, in 1883 and 1908. [3] Agnew stock books, copies in NGA curatorial files provided by the Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. See also David Mannings, _Sir Joshua Reynolds: A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings_, 2 vols., New Haven and London, 2000: 1:308, no. 1134. [4] Mannings 2000, 1:308, no. 1134. The author identified the painting as "untraced" and illustrated a copy, although the NGA had acquired the painting five years earlier. [5] The Mellons lent the painting to an exhibition in 1925.