15th Jul, 2023 11:00 GMT/BST
British, European & Sporting Art
1172
Arthur Hughes (1832-1914)
Portrait of a lady, three-quarter length, seated in a chair, wearing a white lace bonnet trimmed with blue ribbon and a large cameo brooch at her neck
Signed and dated 1851, possibly retouched 1853, oil on canvas with an arched top, 90cm by 69.5cm
Provenance: Anonymous sale, Christie’s, London, 15 December 1966, lot 134 (£40 to Holt); anonymous sale, Christie’s, London, 23 March 1967, lot 61 (50 guineas to Maas); purchased for £57 15s. by Stone Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne; bought by the Stephensons in January 1968.
The estate of the late Ian Stephenson of Laithes, Penrith, Cumbria
Exhibited: London, Royal Academy, 1853 (107) (as ‘A Portrait’).
Literature: Spectator, 28 May 1853, p. 517; Leonard Roberts and Stephen Wildman, Arthur Hughes – His Life & Works, Woodbridge, 1997, p. 125, catalogue no. 12.
A finely painted and characterful portrait of an elderly woman. According to Leonard Roberts, it seems likely that the portrait represents a cousin of the artist, either Mary Ann or Frances Dredge. It is one of the Pre-Raphaelite artist Arthur Hughes’s earliest works, pre-dating his association with Rossetti and his work on the Oxford Union mural project.
We are grateful to Christopher Newall for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.
Auction: British, European & Sporting Art, 15th Jul, 2023
The British, European and Sporting Art Sale at Tennants Auctioneers will see a fine equestrian portrait of ‘Lady Caroline Held by a Groom, Newmarket’ attributed to Thomas Spencer (1700-1763) go under the hammer. It will be joined by notable lots from the Estate of Martin & Felicity Mackintosh of Harrogate, including a rich and plentiful still life of game, fruit and flowers by Hendrik Reekers (1815-1854), and further works by the likes of Ford Madox Brown and William Holman Hunt from the Estate of the late Ian Stephenson of Laithes, Penrith, Cumbria. Other notable lots include Montague Dawson's “HMS Amethyst running the Yangtse Gauntlet, 30th July 1949”.
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Sunday 9 July to Friday 14 July 11am-4pm and morning of sale from 8am
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