13th Jul, 2012 10:00 GMT/BST
Summer Catalogue Sale
383
Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823) Portrait of Willoughby Wood and Arthur Thorold Wood, one boy...
Portrait of Willoughby Wood and Arthur Thorold Wood, one boy seated on a bench, the other on the floor nearby holding flowers
Inscribed by a later hand and dated 1824, oil on canvas, 127cm by 101cm
The sitters are the first and fourth sons of Charles Thorold Wood of Thoresby , Lincolnshire, a Captain in the Royal Horse Guards. On 1 January 1812 he married Jane Thorold, daughter of Sir John Thorold, 9th Bt., of Syston Park, Lincolnshire. The picture and its pendant (sold at Christie's in 1995) are referred to in a letter written by the sitters' mother in Edinburgh, in which she records that her children had been painted by 'Mr. Henry Raeburn'.
Henry Raeburn was born at Stockbridge, Edinburgh. After he left school he was apprenticed, at the age of sixteen, to an Edinburgh jeweller, during which time he began to paint portrait miniatures. Raeburn began to make his name as a painter of full-sized portraits in oil following his return to Edinburgh from Rome in the mid-1780s. He developed a distinctive, individual method of lighting his subjects. Success led to the establishment of his studio at York Place. Living and working in Edinburgh for the rest of his life, Raeburn painted the portraits of many distinguished gentlemen and their family members. Honoured in his final years, Raeburn was knighted in 1822 and was appointed the king's painter and limner in Scotland in 1823.
Sold for £10,000
Estimated at £10,000 - £15,000
Relined, restored condition. The old re-line was probably done in the early part of the 1900's although the painting still retains a great deal of the original translucency of the original paint work. A certain amount of over cleaning in places, the seated child on the right has a rather thinly painted area of neck, background colour on the left of face as well as other areas. There are areas of missing paint in the background colour, the boy's shoe in the left corner and in and around the flowers. There is bitchumen and crackelure in numerous areas, the paint works is dry and brittle in places and also included areas of missing paint. There is dirt and discoloured varnish throughout. (100712)
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