16th Mar, 2024 9:30 GMT/BST
British, European & Sporting Art
1161
After Thomas Gainsborough RA (1727-1788)
Portrait of Lord Frederick Campbell (1729-1816), half length, in a feigned oval
Oil on canvas, 66cm by 62.5cm
Christies stencil to reverse: IS0RW
The sitter was Lord Chief Registrar of Scotland, 1768-1816
Member of Parliament, Glasgow, 1761-1780
Member of Parliament, Argyllshire, 1780-1799
A biography of the sitter can be found in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Literature: "Thomas Gainsborough: The Portraits, Fancy Pictures and Copies after Old Masters", New Haven and London 2019, p.144, no. 144h
The original portrait was a full length portrait commissioned in 1785 by the sitter's brother, John, 5th Duke of Argyll and it hung at Inverarey Castle until it was destroyed in a fire on 5 November 1975. The literature (as referenced above) lists ten copies of the original. Some are preparatory drawings for an enamel by Henry Bone that is now in the Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Mass (92003.78) others are head and shoulder copies as shown here. One of the recorded copies held in the Drummond Collection at Cadland, Hampshire was engraved and probably painted by Gainsborough Dupont, although confusingly it bears the date 1769, which may actually record the date of the sitters marriage. It is assumed that the present work is a copy taken from Dupont's Cadland canvas that was first recorded at Inverarey in 1817.
Sold together with a cache of letters & documents relating to the picture.
We are grateful to Hugh Belsey for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.
Sold for £1,100
Estimated at £400 - £600
Appears unlined, but there is a line of thick restoration around the edge. All keys present, slighly slack.
Large and finescale brittle age craquelure and impact cracks throughout, plus slight stretcher bar marks with associated cracking. In places lifting slightly with some sharp raised points (see images in raking and normal light). One more prominent curved series of cracks from a blow from the reverse running approx. 15cm in the left background just inside the oval.
A few minor scattered retouched losses in the background, with a few further tiny unrestored losses. There has been some abrasion to the darker paint layers and mid-tones, especially see in the background top right of head, hair, jawline, around eyes, nose and mouth, shadows of hand, black lapel and around tassle. There are passages of retouching/reinforcing, slightly discoloured and opaque, to suppress cracks, to reinforce abrasion in places, and larger patches to the bent middle finger and surrounding drapery, to a patch in the shirt, to the collar, to the cheek, around the features, to the hair, and to a rectangular area across the bridge of the nose (see images in UV).
Scuffs to varnish top right of head, middle right edge, and matt patches down right hand side (see images). A thick old varnish, likely discoloured, remains in background and darker drapery, removed over paler passages. Old ingrained dirt, a slighly patchy upper varnish layer, and a light layer of surface dirt.
Examined in frame.
There are several knocks and losses to the frame, with a chunk of composition lost from top right corner decoration. The corner decorations have a thick painted surface (see images).
We are happy to provide Condition Reports to prospective buyers, but would welcome your request as soon as possible, preferably at least 48 hours before the Day of Sale. We cannot guarantee a reply to any requests made within 48 hours of the start of the auction. The absence of a Condition Report from a lot does not mean that the lot is in perfect condition. A Condition Report is an honest expression of our opinion, not a statement of fact and is provided as a service to the seller. All lots are available on public view ahead of an auction and we encourage prospective buyers to inspect an item in person where possible. Our Condition Reports are not prepared by professional conservators, restorers, or engineers, and are prepared with the naked eye unless otherwise stated.
Regarding Pictures, Prints and Works on Paper, works are not examined out of the frame, unless specifically stated. Tennants Auctioneers do not cover damage to gilded wood or plaster picture frames, or to picture frame glass whilst the item is in our possession.
We accept no liability for the opinions expressed in any Condition Report.
Auction: British, European & Sporting Art, 16th Mar, 2024
Coming up for auction this Spring are three notable works by Adolphe Valette (1876-1942), a French Impressionist artist who spent the majority of his career in the North of England. Whilst he is best remembered today as being the highly influential tutor to L.S. Lowry, Valette created a significant body of work in oils, watercolours and drawing media. All three works are sold with provenance from The Perera Collection, the largest collection of works by Valette to have been assembled in private hands.
Further notable works in the sale include an exquisitely detailed still life of a peach, black grapes and cobnuts on a marble shelf by Emilie Preyer (1849-1930), and a work by historical genre painter Edward Matthew Ward (1816-1879) that depicts the hero of a popular comic ballad, John Gilpin.
The sale will also see the final part of the Raymond Booth Studio, comprising 19 works. Raymond Booth (1929-2015) was perhaps the greatest botanical artist and illustrator of his generation, and his passion for the natural world shines through in his highly detailed oil studies of flora and fauna.
Viewing
Sunday 10 March - Friday 15 March 11am-4pm, and morning of sale from 8am
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