Garrick presenting Mrs Garrick her portrait in a mirror / Garrick and His Wife (1864)

Size: 30 x 24 inches

‘Garrick, to console Mrs. Garrick for the non-performance of a promise to paint her portrait on the part of Zoffany, makes her a present of a mirror, and shows her own likeness therein, a better one than could be painted’

This painting is known from a Copyright registration form at The National Archives (COPY 1/6/98), dated 1864, one newspaper review from the same year, and from auction records from 1868. In 1864 it was known as Garrick presenting Mrs Garrick her portrait in a mirror.

On 2 May 1868, the collection of the late art dealer L.V. Flatou was auctioned by Christie’s in London. The sale catalogue includes Garrick and His Wife, with the description given above, which seems to match the supposed subject matter in Garrick presenting Mrs Garrick her portrait in a mirror. The sale catalogue gives the dimensions as 30 x 24 inches. George Redford’s Art Sales (1888) states that the painting was purchased for £97 3s 0d by the British Institution.

Daily News, 20 December 1864:

[Reviewing a winter exhibition at Mr. Flatou’s Gallery, displaying a collection of nearly 200 pictures, also including Crowe’s Dean Swift looking at a lock of Stella’s hair] and

a picture by Mr. Crowe, of Garrick showing his wife her face in the glass to console her for not having her portrait painted by Zoffani… amongst the best of the less important pictures in this collection.

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