Old Masters, British & European Paintings - Day 2 - 2nd March 2022
Lot 401
James Northcote RA (1746-1831)
Estimate £3,000 - £5,000 | Hammer £7500
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Description
James Northcote RA (1746-1831)
Portrait of Sir Bourchier Wrey, 7th Bt. (1757-1826), half-length, wearing a fur-lined coat, standing in a landscape by a table with plans and books, Tawstock Court beyond; Portrait of Lady Anne Wrey (née Osborne) (d.1816), wearing a white dress and red headdress, holding a green parasol. seated in a landscape with Tawstock Court in the distance
A pair, both oil on canvas
127 x 101.7cm; 50 x 40in; 49¼ x 40 (2)
Provenance:
Commissioned by the sitters for 30gns each (with gilt frames for 10gns each), in 1805;
And by descent
Literature:
Stephen Gwynn, Memorials of an Eighteenth Century Painter (James Northcote) (1898), nos.421 & 422;
Jacob Simon, 'The Account Book of James Northcote' in Walpole Society, vol.LVIII (1995-96), p.80, nos.437 & 438
According to James Northcote's account book, the present works were painted in 1805. Tawstock Court, home of the Wrey baronets, burnt down in 1787, and Sir Bourchier rebuilt the house with the assistance of Sir John Soane.