Art News: Los Angeles & London to Share Reynolds’s Stunning Omai Portrait

A huge acquisition was announced last week. The Getty and the National Portrait Gallery in London agreed to buy and to share Joshua Reynolds’s splendid Portrait of Mai (Omai), from 1776. They’ll split the cost — £50 million ($63 million) — and the full-length portrait will travel back and forth from London to Los Angeles, each having it for long periods of time. It’ll be at the NPG when this wonderful museum — my favorite in London — reopens after a nearly three-year overhaul. The Getty will have it during the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

It’s a magnificent portrait. Mai (1753–1780) was, it’s said, the first Polynesian to visit Britain, traveling to London with Captain Cook in 1774 and returning to Tahiti in 1776 after two years as a celebrity. Reynolds painted the portrait of Mai, known in England as Omai, as a personal project rather than a commission. He kept it until he died in 1792. The Earl of Carlisle bought it and to Castle Howard it went until 2001, when the family sold it to the Irish magnate and horse breeder John Magnier for £10.3 million (the equivalent of $17 million at the time).

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Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

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A huge acquisition was announced last week. The Getty and the National Portrait Gallery in London agreed to buy and to share Joshua Reynolds’s splendid Portrait of Mai (Omai), from 1776. They’ll split the cost — £50 million ($63 million) — and the full-length portrait will travel back and forth from London to Los Angeles, each having it for long periods of time. It’ll be at the NPG when this wonderful museum — my favorite in London — reopens after a nearly three-year overhaul. The Getty will have it during the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

It’s a magnificent portrait. Mai (1753–1780) was, it’s said, the first Polynesian to visit Britain, traveling to London with Captain Cook in 1774 and returning to Tahiti in 1776 after two years as a celebrity. Reynolds painted the portrait of Mai, known in England as Omai, as a personal project rather than a commission. He kept it until he died in 1792. The Earl of Carlisle bought it and to Castle Howard it went until 2001, when the family sold it to the Irish magnate and horse breeder John Magnier for £10.3 million (the equivalent of $17 million at the time).