This striking portrait dates from the 1780s, a decade in which Hoppner rose rapidly in public esteem, exhibiting regularly at the Royal Academy and becoming in 1789 Portrait Painter to the Prince of Wales. Sir Ellis Waterhouse pointed out that Hoppner “is forever reminding us of the work of one or other of his great [read more]

The lady depicted in this fine portrait has for some considerable time been believed to be Anne Seymour-Damer, the sculptress. This however is not possible as the date of this picture is c.1750. Having come from the Giffard family collection of Chillington Hall it is possible that it depicts another member of the Seymour family [read more]

By way of contrast to his formal portraiture, William Hoare executed numerous delightful and informal drawings of his family which are loosely executed on small sheets of paper and often in red chalk and pencil. It is not known when this drawing was acquired by Sir Henry Duff Gordon (1866-1953) but this provenance was clearly [read more]

Peter von Winter was born at Mannheim in Germany. A child prodigy on the violin, he played in the Mannheim court orchestra and studied with Salieri in Vienna. Moving to Munich in 1778, he became director of the court theatre and started to write stage works, at first ballets and melodramas, and later Operas, more [read more]

A view of the Chapter House in the ruins of Howden Abbey in Yorkshire. Later adapted and included in “The Monastic Ruins of Yorkshire” engraved by George Hawkins c.1842 Richardson was the son of a York cabinetmaker and became an architect. His watercolours tend to be of abbeys, country houses and ruins.

William Gabriel Davy commanded the 60th Rifles in the early Peninsula War. He joined them from the 61st as a Captain in 1802, and became Major in 1807; he received the Army Gold medal fro the battles of Rolica, Vimeriro and Talavera and transferred to the 7th Garrison Battalion in December 1809. He became a [read more]

The sitter was the eldest child of Charles Heard Beague (d.1827) and Mary (b.1801), daughter of Major-General James Pringle (1746-1810). Born and raised at the family home Hollam near Dulverton in Somerset, he joined the 84th Regiment of Foot in September 1845 as ensign, becoming a lieutenant in March 1847 and then transferring at this [read more]

William Williams was an itinerant portrait painter who is recorded working in Manchester, 1763, Norwich 1768-70, York, 1770, Shrewsbury 1780 and Bath 1785-7. He exhibited regularly between 1770 and 1792 at both the Royal Academy and Society of Artists having won a prize for drawing there in 1758. He was known for painting small full [read more]

William Tilsley Jones was the son of William Jones and Mary Tilsley, only daughter of Rev William Tilsley of Llwydcoed, Mongomeryshire, vicar of Llandidnam. Born 18th July 1782 he married Jane 2nd daughter of Henry Tickell of Leytonstone, Essex in March 1821; she died the following year and in 1826 he married Tickell’s fourth daughter [read more]

Probably England’s greatest pastellist, and certainly her most prolific, John Russell was apprenticed to the portraitist Francis Cotes and set up his own practice in 1767. In 1770 he entered the Royal Academy Schools in London, winning the silver medal for figure drawing. Exhibiting at the Society of Artists in 1768 and regularly at the [read more]

Herrick was trained as a barrister in Ireland. Called to the Irish bar in 1838 he replaced the existing Clerk to the Crown in Bombay in 1843. He married in Egypt in 1846 and returned to his duties in India in November. Sometime afterwards he seems to have been struck down with a liver complaint [read more]

Thomas Hickey was born in Dublin in May 1741 and trained at the Royal Dublin Society Schools from 1753-1756 winning several prizes. From 1761-67 he travelled to Italy, returning to Dublin for three years before moving to London, where he trained and exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1772 and 1775. From 1776-1780 he is [read more]

The sitter in this portrait is a member of an extensive German family, the coat of arms in the painting relating to the aristocratic Mach von Gross-Lubtow of Pomerania. Branches of the family can be found to be related to Prussian royalty, including Friedrich Wilhelm Constantin, Sovereign Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. The area of Pomerania is [read more]

Thomas Hickey was a prolific portraitist to the soldiers, civil servants and merchants of colonial British India and is particularly known for small-scale, elegant oval portraits. His style and format of portraiture became a popular one with the landed gentry and was influential amongst many practicing painters of the late 18th century. This particular portrait [read more]

Sometimes referred to by the French term sanguine, natural red chalk is a clay that gains its color from iron oxide, also known as hematite. The proportion of the hematite to the clay content determines the specific hue of the chalk, which can range from a very pale red to a burnt brownish orange. Red [read more]

Principally a miniaturist Day exhibited at the Royal Academy and was based in London where he is recorded as executing crayon (pastel) drawings along with watercolours. Pastels by him are scarce and this good example bears his distinctive monogram lower left.

This detailed study of a young gentleman shows the influence of two significant French artists; Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) and Louis-Leopold Boilly (1761-1845). Ingres was a great exponent of the crisp, classicism that characterized the age and a believer in a firmness of outline which is reflected in his paintings and his often-quoted conviction [read more]

Frederick Hickey was born in Wales at Island House, Llaugherne, Carmarthanshire, and entered the Navy in 1787, as a midshipman, on board the `Porcupine’ until he transferred in 1792 to the `Lion’ then being fitted for the reception of Lord Macartney, who was about to proceed on a diplomatic mission to the court of Peking. [read more]

The daughter of John Simpson and Anne Lyon, Maria grew up at the family home of Bradley Hall, Co. Durham, her maternal grandfather being the 6th Earl of Strathmore. She married in 1796 Sir Thomas Henry Liddell, 6th Bt. and moved to the Liddell family seat of Ravensworth Castle. Her husband entered Parliament as Tory [read more]

The daughter of William Carr of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and Jane, daughter of Christopher Nicholson, Ann married firstly Dr. Robert Gray, but widowed quite suddenly, she married again in 1705 William Grey of Backworth, Deputy Lieutenant of Northumberland. She had a son, Ralph William Grey and two daughters, Margaret and Ann. After the death of her second [read more]

Stylistically these portraits show a debt to Francis Alleyne, a peripatetic artist who travelled around the country houses of the south-east of England in the latter part of the 18th century executing small paintings of the owners and tenants. He tended to work on canvas and wood, whereas the artist here has favoured the less [read more]

John Fairfax appears to have been an 18th century Norfolk farmer and married Mary Hayward of Brockford, Suffolk. He is dressed in the fashionable attire of a formal tight fitting gown or banyan with frogging fastenings which was in vogue from the early 1730’s. These were often worn to receive visitors during the mornings and [read more]

The second son of Ralph and Margaret Grey of Backworth House, Northumbria, William Grey was born 3 November 1659. Educated at St. John’s College, Cambridge he was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn, 1676 and called to the Bar, 1683. He married Ann Gray, daughter of William Carr of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in September 1705. Apparently he was a [read more]

Cornthwaite Ommanney was in command of the sloop Zephyr in 1766. Ommanney became a lieutenant in 1758, commander in 1765 and made captain in 1772. He was captain of HMS Tartar in 1776. Ommanney was a superannuated rear admiral in 1794. Baptised at St. Mary’s Church, Portsea on 15 August 1736, the son of John [read more]

Painted circa 1800 this small landscape shows a Neo-Palladian mansion through parkland. Figures in the foreground could represent some estate workers or early tourists. During the Regency period it was not uncommon for individuals to be allowed access to a great house if the residents were away. The copse of trees resemble the type that [read more]

Mortimer was a voluminous writer, chiefly of biographies and economic subjects. Born on 9th December 1730 in Carey Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, the only son of Thomas Mortimer (1706–1741), principal secretary to Sir Joseph Jekyll, master of the rolls. Educated at Harrow he precociously published in 1750 An Oration on the much Lamented Death [read more]

Hugh St. Quintin was the son of William St. Quintin (1632-1695) and Elizabeth (c.1635-1700), daughter of Sir William Strickland. He married Katherine Chitty in 1702, and his son William succeeded his uncle to the baronetcy in 1723, becoming High Sherriff of Yorkshire and Lord Mayor of London. Brought up at the family home of Muston [read more]

Major Edward Hodge of the 7th Hussars was a notable soldier distinguishing himself throughout the Napoleonic wars, particularly the Peninsula campaign and Waterloo. On the day of the battle, the 7th Hussars were ordered by Lord Uxbridge, the commander of the British cavalry, to charge on the advancing enemy at the Belgian village of Genappe. [read more]

Willcox was a Wesleyan Methodist Minister born in Wells who moved variously across the country with his family ending his life as minister of Burley Otley in Yorkshire. He was in Deptford during the 1840s when this drawing was taken by Smetham who had become by 1851 drawing master to the Wesleyan Normal College, Westminster.

John Tabor was the son of John Tabor (b.1630) and Rebecca Root of Panfield, Essex who married in 1655. Baptised in 1656, the present portrait was painted sometime after his marriage to Elizabeth House in 1681. The Tabor family have been landowners and farmers in rural Essex for many centuries. Mrs Mary Beale (1633 – [read more]

Sporting and country pursuits have always been popular with artists in Britain and perhaps it’s high point was in the early to mid 19th century. This particular scene shows an elegant couple with companion making their way through the countryside on a horse drawn gig. The figures have been finished with much detail to their [read more]

West won fame and rank in large measure due to this painting but his unconcealed pride also earned him more than a few detractors. One of them, the painter James Northcote (1746-1831), who held the expatriate American in particularly low esteem, said that one could not be with West for five minutes before he mentioned [read more]

Margaret Carmichael (d.1803) was the daughter of Dr. James Smyth of Aithernie and married in 1740 Thomas Carmichael (1702-1746). There only son James, under the terms of his maternal grandfather’s will, changed his name to Carmichael Smyth. James went on to distinguish himself: he graduated with a Doctor of Medicine; became Physician Extraordinary to King [read more]

Ralph Battell was a notable member of the late 17th century clergy. Rallying against the vestiges of Puritanism he became a great exponent of the inclusion of music and ceremony in the context of church services and used his position within the royal household at the Chapel Royal to air these views publishing in 1694 [read more]

Dr. James Smyth (1681-1765) was the son of the Rev. William Smyth of Moneydie, and in turn took on landed estates which encompassed Aithernie Castle in Fife. His daughter Margaret married in to the powerful Carmichael clan, with her son James, under the terms of her father’s will, changing his name to Carmichael Smyth. James [read more]

The present portrait is a head and shoulders version of Reynolds’s three-quarter length portrait of 1782 (Earl of Leicester Collection, Holkham Hall). The portrait is the most widely reproduced of Fox’s icons, and proved the most popular with his army of devotees, political allies and followers. The original painting at Holkham depicts Fox in a [read more]

This insightful and colourful portrait, previously unidentified but now known to depict Caroline Milnes, is a striking example of Smith’s capabilities as a pastellist displaying an understanding and expertise of the medium which is equal to some of the great pastellists such as his contemporary John Russell. Influenced by the work of Sir Joshua Reynolds [read more]

This striking study of the Indian soldier Ram Lakhan, was sketched by artist/soldier James Brown at Thazi junction, in Burma, whilst on the troop train heading south towards Taungoo in June 1945. They formed part of the continued push by the allied forces against Japan through Burma which started in earnest in the April with [read more]

Kléber was born in Strasbourg, training in architecture, but eventually attending military school in Munich. From this education, he obtained a commission in the Austrian army, but resigned in 1783 on finding his humble birth hindered his chances for promotion. He volunteered for the French Army in 1791, and rose through the ranks, consistently showing [read more]

I am grateful to Caroline Pegum, who is compiling the catalogue of Jervas’s works to include this painting, for her views on this portrait. This small full-length, like that of the Countess of Bridgewater (Stock 0779), probably records a lost portrait on the scale of life of Henrietta, 2nd Duchess of Marlborough. Certainly other portraits [read more]

The sitter was the daughter of Captain John Stirling (died 1756) of Auchyle and Herbertshire and Christian, daughter of Sir William Stirling, Bt. of Ardoch. Born in March 1722 she married firstly in January 1751 Sir James Stirling of Glorat, who died in April 1771. She later remarried the Honorable James Erskine of Alloa, later [read more]

Bulkely Banson married Sarah Maule (1718-1776) in August 1748. The Maules were prosperous landed gentry descended from George Maule of Kings Sutton, Oxfordshire. They had four children and appear to have lived around Northhamptonshire and Cambridge. Banson probably was a merchant later in life and his body was interred with his mother-in-law in the city [read more]