William Powell Frith RA (1819-1909)

William Powell Frith RA (1819-1909)
Claude Duval
Signed and dated W P Frith 1886 (lower right)
Oil on canvas
52.9 x 72.8cm; 20¾ x 28¾in

Provenance:
John Hick JP, DL (1815-1894), Mytton Hall, Whalley, Lancashire;
His posthumous sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 18 June 1909, lot 44, where purchased by Messrs Gooden and Fox (105gns);
Property of a Deceased Estate

Literature:
‘Mitton Hall (sic) Pictures, Mr John Hick’s Collection Sold’ in Burnley Express, 23 June 1909, p.5;
Aubrey Noakes, William Frith Extraordinary Victorian Painter: A Biographical & Critical Essay (London, 1978), caption text in between pages 56-7

William Powell Frith exhibited the prime version of Claude Duval at the Royal Academy in 1860, and today it hangs in the Manchester Art Gallery (no.1917.270). He signed a contract with the dealer Louis Victor Flatow for the original work, two smaller versions and the copyright of the composition. After the copyright expired, Frith then painted two further versions, in 1886 (offered here) and 1903.

The subject of the present work derives from Thomas Babington Macaulay's History of England from the Accession of James II. Claude Duval was originally a French page to the Duke of Richmond, but became a highwayman noted for his fashionable attire and gentlemanly behaviour. Frith has depicted the moment when Duval's gang has held up the carriage of Lady Aurora Sydney. Her carriage contained £400, but Duval took only £100 on the condition that Lady Aurora danced a Coranto with him.