The Drummond Family - YCBA Collections Search

Johan Joseph Zoffany, 1733–1810, German, active in Britain (from 1760), The Drummond Family, ca. 1769

Creator:: Johan Joseph Zoffany, 1733–1810
Title:: The Drummond Family
Date:: ca. 1769
Medium:: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:: 41 x 63 inches (104.1 x 160 cm), Frame: 48 × 69 inches (121.9 × 175.3 cm)
Credit Line:: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:: Public Domain
Accession Number:: B1977.14.86
Classification:: Paintings
Collection:: Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:: B1977.14.86FR
Subject Terms:: banker | bench | cane | children | children | conversation piece | costume | daughter | dog (animal) | eggs | eggs | family | father | goldsmith | group portrait | hat | horses (animals) | husband | men | portrait | snuffbox | son | wife | women
Associated People:: Drummond, Charlotte (née Beauclerk, died 1793)
Drummond family (per. 1363–1518), nobility
Drummond, George (1758–1789), Charlotte and John Drummond's eldest son
Drummond, Andrew (1688–1769), Scottish goldsmith and banker
Drummond, John (1766–1833)
Drummond, Jane Diana, John Drummond senior's eldest daughter
Drummond, Charlotte (died 1774), Charlotte and John Drummond’s youngest daughter
Drummond, John (1723–1774), member of Parliament
Access:: Not on view
Note: To make an appointment to see this work, please contact the Paintings and Sculpture department at ycba.paintings@yale.edu. Please visit the Paintings and Sculpture collections page on our website for more details.
Link:: https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:428
Export:: XML
IIIF Manifest:: JSON

This ambitious group portrait shows three generations of the family of the Scottish goldsmith and banker Andrew Drummond (1688–1769), a widower, who is seated in the middle with his dog. His son, the member of parliament John Drummond (1723–1774), stands to the left with his son and daughter, their ponies and a groom. John Drummond’s aristocratic wife, Charlotte (née Beauclerk) and their two other children complete the right hand side of the composition. Andrew Drummond’s bank was particularly well patronized by artists, including Thomas Gainsborough, the sculptor Henry Cheere, the plasterer Joseph Rose, the architects Sir William Chambers and Henry Holland, and the landscape gardener Lancelot “Capability” Brown. Later, Drummonds’ were crown contractors for the payment of British troops during the American War of Independence.

Gallery label for Paul Mellon's Legacy: A Passion for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29)

This ambitious group portrait shows three generations of the family of the Scottish goldsmith and banker Andrew Drummond (1688–1769), a widower. The date of Mr. Drummond’s death, in 1769, has generally been taken to indicate a “terminus ante quem” for the painting, but it is not entirely certain that his inclusion in the family group, sitting with his dog and somewhat isolated in the middle, was not a commemorative gesture of reverent piety postmortem. In 1766 Zoffany had painted an oval single-figure portrait of Andrew Drummond that obviously provided him with the model for this part of the composition. In both, he took care to include Dr. Drummond’s expensive snuffbox, his splendid malacca cane with a gold crutch handle, and, most important, the dog (seated this time on the garden seat). The cane and snuffbox are still owned by Drummonds Bank. Mr. Drummond’s son, one of the members of Parliament for Thetford, John Drummond (1723–74), stands to the left with his son and daughter, their ponies, and a groom. John Drummond’s aristocratic wife, Lady Charlotte (née Beauclerk, the family of the dukes of St. Albans), and their two other children complete the right-hand side of the composition. Andrew Drummond’s bank was particularly well patronized by artists, including Thomas Gainsborough, the sculptor Henry Cheere, the plasterer Joseph Rose, the architects Sir William Chambers and Henry Holland, and the landscape gardener Lancelot “Capability” Brown. Zoffany himself opened an account at the bank in 1765. Later, members of the Drummond family were crown contractors for the payment of British troops during the American War of Independence.

Angus Trumble

John Baskett, Paul Mellon's Legacy: a Passion for British Art: Masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, p. 259, no. 39, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Sidesaddle, 1690-1935 (National Sporting Library and Museum, 2018-09-07 - 2019-03-24) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Johan Zoffany RA (Royal Academy of Arts, 2012-03-10 - 2012-06-10) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Johan Zoffany RA (Yale Center for British Art, 2011-10-27 - 2012-02-12) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Royal Academy of Arts, 2007-10-20 - 2008-01-27) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Painting in England 1700-1850 - From The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon (Yale University Art Gallery, 1965-04-15 - 1965-06-20) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

A Great Collection of British Pictures in Virginia, The Times (London), , May 1, 1963, p. 5, Times Digital Archive [ORBIS]

Brian Allen, The Sport of Collecting : Paul Mellon and British Art, Apollo, v.165,no.542, April 2007, pp. 36, 37, fig.7, N1 A54 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

John Baskett, Painting in England: 1700-1850: the Collection of English paintings formed by Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon : on Exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, until August 18th, , Connoisseur, Vol. 153, London, June 1963, p. 102, N1 C75 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

John Baskett, Paul Mellon's Legacy: a Passion for British Art: Masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, p. 259, no. 39, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Geoffrey W. Beard, The compleat gentleman, five centuries of aristocratic life , Rizzoli, New York, 1992, p. 157, no. 123, HT653 G7 B415 1992 (YCBA) [YCBA]

British Art at Yale, Apollo, v.105, April 1977, p. 260, fig. 10, N1 .A54 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash, landscape and the life of objects , Lund Humphries, Farnham ; Burlington, VT, 2013, p. 28, NJ18.N17 C28 2013 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 268-269, N590.2 A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

John Cornforth, At the Sign of the Golden Eagle, 250 Years of Drummonds of Charing Cross , Country Life, vol. 143, no. 3716, May 23, 1968, pp. 13379-80, fig. 1, S3 C68 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Denis E. Cosgrove, The Iconography of landscape, essays on the symbolic representation, design, and use of past environments , 9, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [England] New York, 1988, p. 48, fig. 1, NX650.L34 I26 1988 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Jessica David, Palette, Brush, and Knife: A Technical Examination of Johan Zoffany's Drummond Family, http://www.youtube.com/v/NmUscyrPhtY , September 2, 2011, Available Online via YouTube video [ORBIS]

Drummond Family, ART News, vol. 76, Summer 1977, p. 43, N1 A6 OVERSIZE (HAAS) [ORBIS]

Ralph Edwards, Georgian Conversation Pictures, Apollo, v.105, no. 182, April 1977, p. 260, fig. 10, N1 A54 105:2 + (YCBA) Another copy of this article may be found in a separately bound and catalogued copy of this issue located on the Mellon Shelf [call number : N5220 M552 A7 1977 + (YCBA)] [YCBA]

Judy Egerton, British Sporting and Animal Paintings 1655-1867 : A Catalogue : The Paul Mellon Collection, , Tate Publishing, London, 1978, p. 122, ND1383 G7 B75 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

English Art in Brussels, Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, vol. 55,no. 320, November 1929, p. 250, Plate II B, N1 B87 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) Also available online at JSTOR [YCBA]

Catherine M. Gordon, British paintings Hogarth to Turner, Frederick Warne, London, 1981, p. 79, ND466 G67 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Luke Herrmann, British landscape painting of the eighteenth century., Faber & Faber, London, 1973, p. 106, ND1354.4 H47 1973 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Luke Herrmann, The Paul Mellon Collection at Burlington House, Connoisseur, vol. 157, December 1964, pp. 213, 214,216, fig, 4, N1 C75 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Charlotte Klonk, Science and the perception of nature : British landscape art in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, , The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, New Haven, 1996, ND1354.4 K56 1996 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Charlotte Klonk, Science and the perception of nature, British landscape art in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries , , The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, New Haven, 1996, ND 1354.4 K56 1996 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Victoria Manners, John Zoffany, R.A. His Life and Works. 1735-1810, , John Lane, London, 1920, pp. 20, 192-93, NJ18.Z68 +M3 1920 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Mr Paul Mellon, Reflections in a silver spoon, a memoir , W. Morrow, New York, 1992, btwn pp. 382-3, N5220 M552 1992 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Felicity Nussbaum, The Global Eighteenth Century, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Md., 2003, pp. 173-74, fig. 11.4, D287 G56 2003 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Painting in England : 1700-1850, Arts Review, vol. 37,, April 1963, p. 18, V 2337 [ORBIS]

Painting in England 1700-1850 : collection of Mr. & Mrs. Paul Mellon : Exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, , 1,2, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, 1963, p. 124 (v.1), no. 235, ND466 V57 v.1-2 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Painting in England 1700-1850 from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, The Royal Academy of Arts Winter Exhibition 1964-65., , Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 1964, p. 56 (v.1)..., no. 205, ND466 R68 1964/65 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 3, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Ronald Paulson, Emblem and expression, meaning in English art of the eighteenth century , Thames and Hudson, London, 1975, pp.155, 157-58, fig. 89, NX543 P38 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Claudia P. Pfeiffer, Sidesaddle, 1690-1935: September 8, 2018 - March 24, 2019, National Sporting Library and Museum, Middleburg, VA, p. 4-5, V 2803 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Martin Postle, Johan Zoffany, RA : Society Observed, , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011, pp. 108, 167-744, 249, no. 69, figs. 157, 157a, NJ18 Z68 + A12 2011 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Kate Retford, The Conversation Piece Making Modern Art in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2017, p. 233, fig. 177, ND1314.4 .R48 2017 (LC) Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Philip Sassoon, Loan exhibition of English conversation pieces in aid of the Royal Northern Hospital ... March 4th to 30th (inclusive) 1930, Royal Northern Hospital, [s.l., 1930, no. 9, ND1304 S37 1930 (HAAS) [ORBIS]

Robin Simon, Zoffany at the Yale Center for British Art, British Art Journal, vol. 12, no. 3, Winter, 2011-2012, p. 3, N6761 B74 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Sacheverell Sitwell, Conversation pieces, a survey of English domestic portraits and their painters , B.T. Batsford, London, 1936, pp. 38, 59, ND1314 S5 1936 (YCBA) [YCBA]

The Yale Center for British Art, An Anniversary Celebration of Paul Mellon's Great Legacy , Apollo, April 2007, p. 36, fig. 7, N5220 M552 A7 OVERSIZE (YCBA) Appeared as April 2007 issue of Apollo;; all of the articles may also be found in bound Apollo Volume [N1 A54 165:2 +] [YCBA]

Beth Fowkes Tobin, Colonizing nature, the tropics in British arts and letters, 1760-1820 , Academy, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2005, pp. 98-99, 220 n. 40, fig. 10, PR129 T76 T63 2005 (YCBA) Also available online - Project Muse (ORBIS) [YCBA]

Penelope Treadwell, Johan Zoffany : Artist and Adventurer, , Paul Holberton Publishing, London, 2009, pp. 136, 146, NJ18 Z68 T74 2009 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Treasures and Curiosities, Drummonds at Charing Cross 1717 - 1967 , National Portrait Gallery, London, 1968, Not Available at Yale

Mary Webster, Johan Zoffany, 1733-1810, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2011, pp. 150-2, fig. 138, NJ18 Z68 W43 2011 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

George Charles Williamson, English conversation pictures of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, B.T. Batsford, London, 1931, pp. 16-17, pl. XLVI, ND1304 E5 1931 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Yale Center for British Art, Selected paintings, drawings & books, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1977, p. 24, N590.2 A82 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Yale University Art Gallery, Painting in England, 1700-1850, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon : [exhibition at] Yale University Art Gallery, April 15-June 20, 1965, , vol. 1, W. Clowes and sons, New Haven, 1965, p. 65 (v.1), p., no. 238, ND466 Y35 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Yale University Art Gallery, Paintings , drawings and sculpture collected by Yale alumni : an exhibition , May 19 - June 26, 1960, , New Haven, c. 1960, no. 29, J418 N45F 1960 (LSF) See ORBIS for call numbers of additional copies available at LSF [ORBIS]

Young Family; Music Party on the Thames; John, Fourteenth Lord Willoughby, his Wife and Their Children; Drummond Family, Apollo, vol. 11, March 1930, pp. 163, 165,, J10 Ap43 + (SML) [ORBIS]

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