15th Mar, 2025 9:30 GMT/BST
British, European & Sporting Art
1083
David Jagger ROI, RP (1891-1958)
Portrait of Mrs Edgar Grotrian
Signed and dated 1938, oil on canvas, 74.5cm by 62cm
Provenance: Private Collection, Yorkshire
Private Collection, Fife, Scotland
By family descent
Exhibited: London Portrait Society 1938, no.14
Literature: The Saturday Review (date not known); Sheffield Independent, 23 April 1938: London Portrait Society 1938 Annual Exhibition (exhibition catalogue illustrated p.18)
This commission portrait of Mrs. Elsie Mary Grotrian (née Frazer, 1880-1960) was exhibited in London on the eve of the Second World War. She was born in Chelsea, London and married Edgar Grotrian, manager and later owner of the Hull Daily Mail newspaper in 1905. With her husband preoccupied with business matters, she oversaw the family estate in North Yorkshire. Jagger painted all four Grotrian siblings; Rosemary (1927), Suzanne (1934), William (1935) and Angela (1936). Each portrait was prominently displayed in London, including at the Royal Academy. After which, all five of Jagger’s Grotrian portraits were hung together at the family residence, Knapton Hall near Malton. Jagger’s highly realistic portraits were favourably compared to that of his contemporaries, Herbert James Gunn, William Orpen and Gerald Leslie Brockhurst. As such, Jagger's talents as a portraitist were in great demand from industrialists, leading academics, politicians including Winston Churchill and numerous members of the British aristocracy including several members of the Royal Family.
This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of David Jaggers' paintings, written by Timothy Dickson.
Sold for £3,100
Estimated at £3,000 - £5,000
Unlined, all keys present, lacking in tension. Some staining on reverse from varnish. Slight large scale undulation to chest/left shoulder. Scattered areas of brittle age and impact cracking, slightly raised and pulling up the canvas, including to above right of left of head and in top left corner. Slight stretcher bar mark at the bottom edge. Minor old damage/rubbing around the edges, some retouched. Scattered passages of retouching to drying cracks and thin areas, mostly to the background. Patches of retouching to the forehead, although it is unclear why this has been executed. (see UV images). The retouching is all matt in reflected light. Possible slight abrasion in small areas, such as the right of the hair by ear. Very glossy thick varnish, made slightly uneven with matt retouchings. Light surface dirt with fibre in varnish. Minor surface accretions including fly spotting.
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Auction: British, European & Sporting Art, 15th Mar, 2025
An early sketch by the master landscape painter John Constable (1776-1837), not previously recorded in literature on the artist, will be on offer in the sale. The sketch has emerged from a private family collection in North Yorkshire and will be sold with an estimate of £150,000-200,000 (plus buyer’s premium).
The sale will also include paintings with provenance from the Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire of Charlton Park, a Private Collection from Victoria Lodge, Tweedsmuir, Biggar and the Property of Sir Brooke Boothby, removed from Fonmon Castle, Glamorgan. Originally built by the St John family c. 1180, Fonmon Castle was sold to Colonel Philip Jones, Oliver Cromwell’s Comptroller of Household during the Civil War. Jones enlarged the castle, and later his descendant, Robert Jones III, converted it into a Georgian mansion with Rococo interiors, uniquely without changing the outer walls. The Jones family line having failed during the First World War, the Castle passed to Oliver Henry Jones’ great niece Clara, Lady Boothby, who brought with her many possessions of the ancient Boothby and Valpy families. The property has since passed by descent.
Further notable paintings on offer from other vendors in the sale include Still life of assorted Summer flowers in a glazed vase before a window by Dorothea Sharp, “The Church of Santa Maria della Salute, Venice” by Antoinetta Brandeis and a fine marine painting, “Westward & Britannia Racing off the Royal Yacht Squadron, Isle of Wight” by Richard Firth.
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