Gainsborough promised to Frick Collection
February 16 2026
Picture: Frick Collection
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Frick Collection in New York had some good news to report last week, to coincide with their recently opened Gainsborough exhibition. The museum has been promised the artist's Portrait of Mrs. Alexander Champion, a gift from one of its trustees.
Here's some information about the sitter:
The sitter depicted in this new acquisition is Frances, Mrs. Alexander Champion (née Nind, 1740-1818). Frances spent much of her early life in India, then under British rule, and in 1759 married Colonel Thomas Alexander Champion in Calcutta, where he was Commander in stationed as Chief of the Bengal Army. She amassed a collection of Indian works of art, including coins, miniatures, and ivory boxes, some of which remains in the collection at Hatchlands Park, Surrey. The couple returned permanently to England after Colonel Champion’s retirement around 1775, moving into a fashionable address in Bath, where Frances’s Wednesday evening parties were said to have been a coveted social invitation.
