Sir Edwin Henry Landseer R.A. (1802-1873) Head study of a woman

Sir Edwin Henry Landseer R.A. (1802-1873)

Head study of a woman, possibly Lady Louisa Russell (1812-1905)

Oil on board, oval

19.5 x 16.5cm; 7¾ x 6½in

Provenance:

Sotheby's Belgravia, 30 March 1982, lot 200 (as a study for Harvest in the Highlands)

Christie's, 22 February 1985, Lot 61

Bonhams Knightsbridge, 20 March 1997, Lot 1

Peter Johnson, 2000

Sotheby's 29th October 2008, Lot 508

This head study is likely to have been executed by Landseer during the 1830's, a period during which he produced a great many similarly fluid sketches. It was a decade during which Landseer was at his most prolific and producing some of his best works. The success of his painting was matched by his social success, and he spent much time as a guest of aristocratic patrons for whom he often painted their children and pets. Landseer is known to have repeatedly painted the children of his most prominent patrons, John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford and his wife Lady Georgiana, Duchess of Bedford (who was rumoured to be Landseer's lover). Lady Louisa Russell, later the Duchess of Abercorn, was the second of the Bedford's three daughters and the physiognomy of the girl in the present sketch is comparable to that in other known depictions of her by Landseer. (See for example A. Graves, Catalogue of the Works of the late Sir Edwin Landseer, London 1876, p.18, no.206).

We would like to thank Richard Ormond for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.