A Fortune-Teller

A Fortune-Teller
ArtistJoshua Reynolds
Year1777
TypeOil on canvas, genre painting
Dimensions124.5 cm × 147.5 cm (49.0 in × 58.1 in)
LocationWaddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire

A Fortune-Teller is a 1777 genre painting by the British artist Joshua Reynolds. [1] It presents a gipsy fortune teller reading the palm of a woman with a young girl perched on her lap. Reynolds, the first President of the Royal Academy was well-known for his portraits but increasingly branched out into other genres including history. With this painting he may have been making reference to a work of Caravaggio It was displayed at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1777 at Pall Mall. Today the original is at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire. [2] Other versions of the work exist, notably a 1781 painting now in the collection of Kenwood House in Highgate. [3]

References

Bibliography

  • Bryant, Juliua. Kenwood: Catalogue of Paintings in the Iveagh Bequest. Yale University Pewss, 2003
  • McIntyre, Ian. Joshua Reynolds: The Life and Times of the First President of the Royal Academy. Allen Lane, 2003.