Lot 301: James Green (Leytonstone 1771-1834 Bath)

James Green (Leytonstone 1771-1834 Bath)
Portrait of the first three Presidents of the Royal Academy: Sir Joshua Reynolds (1769-1792), Benjamin West (1792-1820), and Sir Thomas Lawrence (1820-1830)
signed 'J. Green'
pencil, watercolor and bodycolor
14 3/8 x 19 in. (36.8 x 49.1 cm.)

With Vose Galleries, Boston, 1967 (according to an inscription on the verso of a photograph of this drawing at the Frick Art Reference Library, New York).

Green entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1791 and was soon noticed by Sir Joshua Reynolds who allowed him to copy many of his pictures. While the present drawing seems to have been done after the deaths of all three R.A. Presidents, Green did famously paint West's portrait, a full-length oil on canvas, now cut down and in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Lawrence was inspired by Green's portrait for his own painted portraits of West which are now in the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford and the Delaware Art Center.
An old label on the back of the frame reads 'No. 2/Portraits of Sir Joshua Reynolds,/Benjamin West Esq. and/Sir Thomas Lawrence the/deceased Presidents of the Royal Academy/James green/8 South Crescent/Bedford Square.' If written by Green it would place the execution of this watercolor after Lawrence's death in 1830 (Reynolds died in 1792 and West in 1820) and before Green's in 1834.