Historical Portraits Sold at Toovey’s

Henri-Pierre Danloux – Louis Antoine de Bourbon, duc d’Angoulême (1775-1844) and Charles Ferdinand d’Artois, duc’ d’Berrie (1778-1820), Sons of Charles X, King of France, a pair of oval oils on canvas laid onto panel, one signed and dated 1797, each 24cm x 18.5cm

A pair of remarkable portraits have just sold at Toovey’s for £15,000.

The portraits are by Henri-Pierre Danloux (1753-1809) who in 1792 moved to London escaping the French Revolution.

They depict Louis Antoine de Bourbon, duc d’Angoulême (1775-1844) and Charles Ferdinand d’Artois, duc’ d’Berrie (1778-1820), the sons of Charles X, King of France and provide a window into history. Charles and his eldest son, Louis Antoine would both eventually be forced to abdicate in favour of Louis Phillipe de Orléans.

Louis Antoine accompanied and advised his uncle, Louis XVIII. He was twice forced into exile in Britain, and twice he fought in the Napoleonic wars, the second time with Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo.

Danloux was influenced by fashionable English portrait painters like Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830), John Hoppner (1758-1810) and George Romney (1734-1802). He exhibited at the Royal Academy in London which brought commissions from a number of British patrons.

Danloux would return to Paris in 1801 and continue to paint until his death in 1809.

Toovey’s picture specialist, Tim Williams with one of the Henri-Pierre Danloux portraits

Charles Philippe, Count d’Artois and later King Charles X of France, arrived in Scotland with his sons and established an émigré court at the Palace of Holyrood, Edinburgh. Danloux travelled from London to Scotland to paint the portraits of his fellow countrymen. His portrait of Louis Antoine was engraved by Philipp Audinet in 1799 (an example can be found at the National Portrait Gallery, London). Versions of both portraits by Danloux can also be found in the collection of the Palace of Versailles,. The portraits sold at Toovey’s were gifts from the sitters to Lord Adam Gordon (1726-1801) commander-in-chief of the forces of North Britain, and remained with the family. Lord Gordon had greeted d’Artois and his sons at the quayside on their arrival in Edinburgh where half of the city had turned out to witness the spectacle. Danloux also painted a portrait of Lord Gordon in 1799 which is now in the collection of the National Galleries Scotland.

It is always special to discover works that are fresh to the market like these. Toovey’s next sale of fine paintings will be held on 17th May 2023 and entries are still being invited.  If you would like advice on you paintings collection contact Tim Williams at Toovey’s.

Important Gaucho Painting to be Sold at Toovey’s

Juan Manuel Blanes’s Gaucho on Horseback in a Uruguayan Prairie Landscape, oil on canvas, circa 1879-1885

A major work by Uruguay’s most important painter Juan Manuel Blanes of a Gaucho has been re-discovered here in Sussex by Toovey’s fine art consultant Tim Williams. It will be sold at Toovey’s Washington salerooms on February 15th and carries a pre-sale estimate of £80,000-£120,000.

Juan Manuel Blanes (1830-1901) is renowned for painting grand history paintings and portraits, as well as scenes and events that shaped Uruguay’s national identity during the years of conflict that resulted in independence from Spain.

The Uruguayan national gallery in Montevideo is named Museo del Bellas Artes Juan Manuel Blanes and houses the largest collection of the artist’s work.

Tim’s research has revealed the painting’s remarkable provenance. The first owner of the painting was the notable Spanish aristocrat Baldomero Hyacinth de Bertodano, 7th Marquis de Moral. He lived at Cowbridge House near Malmsbury in Wiltshire and the painting hung there until his death in 1921. The contents of Cowbridge House were auctioned to divide the estate between five family members. The painting was included in the sale. Described as ‘A fine Oil Painting, The Gaucho on the Pampas in Argentine about 52 by 46 ins’. Baldomero’s brother, Charles Edmund de Bertodano, a notable Railway engineer, purchased the painting from the auction and it has remained with his family to the present day.

The landscape being sold at Toovey’s depicts a scene with a Gaucho on horseback pointing, as two horsemen gallop away on the horizon. Despite the reference to Argentina in the Cowbridge House auction catalogue, the painting in fact shows a Uruguayan prairie. The golden glow of Blanes’s palette and the way that he paints the effect of light playing on that prairie is remarkable.

Toovey’s fine art consultant Tim Williams with Juan Manuel Blanes’s important painting Gaucho on Horseback

Tim explains how Blanes’ Gaucho paintings celebrate the way of life of these independent, rugged horsemen whose lives embodied the South American ‘Wild West’ and national identity in a similar way to the cowboys of the United States. The open prairie beneath an expansive sky would have contrasted with the pressured urban lives of the cosmopolitan collectors who patronised Blanes’ work.

Commenting on the forthcoming auction Tim said “This is the first time that this important painting has appeared on the market in some 102 years – I can’t wait until sale day to see what happens!”

Juan Manuel Blanes’ Gaucho on Horseback in a Uruguayan Prairie Landscape, oil on canvas, circa 1879-1885, will be auctioned at Toovey’s on February 15th with a pre-sale estimate of £80,000-£120,000

Lost Work by George Romney Discovered in West Sussex

Toovey’s Fine Art consultant, Tim Williams, with the re-discovered portrait of Lady Laetitia Beauchamp-Proctor by the important English artist George Romney

A lost work by the important English artist George Romney (1734-1802) has been newly re-discovered in West Sussex by Toovey’s Fine Art consultant Tim Williams. Romney was the most fashionable artist of his day and this portrait is to be auctioned at Toovey’s with an estimate of £8000-£12000 on 16th February.

The painting has been in the vendor’s family since the day it was painted, the sitter being a direct ancestor of the owner’s late husband. It is not recorded why but the painting had been previously attributed to Angelica Kauffman sometime before 1915. At that time it was in the possession of Rev Sydney C. Beauchamp. A letter written in 1915 by Rev Beauchamp describes that he had fallen on hard times and was prepared to sell the painting to his cousins for £50 on the proviso that he had the option to buy it back if his fortunes improved. Evidently his fortunes did not improve and the painting has remained in his cousin’s family until now.

Toovey’s Fine Art consultant Tim Williams says ‘I was immediately struck by the quality of the painting when I saw it at the client’s home. I thought it had some compositional similarities to Kauffman’s work, but my gut reaction was that it was by George Romney. I initially contacted the notable Kauffman scholar Dr Professor Wendy Wassyng Roworth who felt the treatment of the subject wasn’t quite right for Kauffman and also suggested Romney as the artist. I wrote to Alex Kidson, the leading authority on Romney, who confirmed that it was indeed by Romney and there was a considerable amount of supporting evidence. The date it was executed was recorded in Romney’s ledgers, as well as the cost of framing. It had been included in Alex Kidson’s scholarly catalogue raisonné of the artist but its whereabouts were unknown and the sitter’s identity was conflated with that of her sister. Alex had never seen an image of the portrait and was as excited as me about its re-discovery. It is rare to have such comprehensive provenance for a portrait of this date.’

George Romney – Portrait of Lady Laetitia Beauchamp-Proctor, oil on canvas, circa 1780

Tim explains how the portrait of Lady Laetitia Beauchamp-Proctor, née Johnson, had originally hung at her sister’s home, Langley Park in Norfolk. It is possible that the same picture is recorded hanging in her brother in law, Sir Thomas Beauchamp-Proctor’s drawing room in 1829 as noted in John Chamber’s ‘A General History of the County of Norfolk’ which was published in 1829 by John Stacy in London.

George Romney recorded Lady Beauchamp-Proctor’s seven sittings between 20th July and 16th August 1780, and the 18 guinea fee was paid to the artist on 5th May 1781. It was sent to Thomas Allwood for framing and is recorded in his framing book as ‘an oval 3/4 at a price of £2 12s 6d for Lady Beauchamp Proctor’.

Tim Williams concludes excitedly ‘This is the first time that this portrait has ever appeared on the market – almost unheard of for a 242 year old painting.’

View the lot here.

Lost Portrait of Benjamin West Rediscovered

Andrew Robertson’s 1803 portrait of Benjamin West

This week I am in the company of Toovey’s picture specialist and researcher Tim Williams. Tim has just discovered an important portrait of the notable artist Benjamin West (1738-1820) which had been lost for more than 100 years. West’s efforts led to the establishment of the Royal Academy in London and he would become the institution’s second president. The work is a miniature watercolour by Andrew Robertson (1777-1845), one of the pre-eminent portrait miniaturists of the 19th century, and is due to auctioned at Toovey’s on Wednesday 18th March 2020.

Tim Williams explains “Robertson was born in Scotland in 1777 and had studied under Alexander Nasmyth and Henry Raeburn before leaving Scotland for London in 1801 to seek fame and fortune. In a letter to his father in July 1801 Robertson wrote, ‘I shall make London my residence…I may not only make my fortune, but acquire fame in the world.’

Not long after his arrival in London, Robertson made the acquaintance of Benjamin West. West saw that the ambitious Scotsman had great talent, and became something of a mentor and advocate to the young artist, agreeing to sit for a portrait himself.

Robertson began West’s portrait in 1802. West would sit for Robertson on a Sunday morning. In total the portrait took 15 sittings over many months. Robertson wrote to the wealthy London businessman John Julius Angerstein in August, ‘…without any other introduction to Mr. West, he should so far approve of my poor pencil as to think it not beneath him to sit to me, and to sacrifice a very considerable portion of his precious time, for that purpose. I have painted his portrait in the same style as I copied Govartius…’. The composition was strongly influenced by Anthony van Dyck’s portrait of Cornelis van der Geest. At the time it was known as ‘Govartius’ and Angerstein, who owned it, had given Robertson access to copy the picture earlier in 1802.”

Toovey’s picture specialist Tim Williams with Andrew Robertson’s rediscovered portrait of Benjamin West

Tim continues “Once completed Robertson sent his miniature portrait of West for exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1803 where it received much acclaim from visitors and established artists. Robertson wrote to his friend John Ewen, ‘…Mr. West told me himself that I have no idea how it [his portrait] is talked of, and approved, both by artists and others.’ More excitingly for Robertson it was seen by George III. In a letter of 1803, Robertson elaborates. ‘Yesterday the King visited the Exhibition… After the King went into the room where my pictures are, I heard him take notice of them… I heard the King say, ‘Roberts?-aye, Robertson’ …‘Scotchman?’ and a little after-‘beginner’ – this was all I could hear. However, it was enough to afford me no small degree of satisfaction.’

Buoyed by this success, and now in demand, Robertson had a copy of his miniature of Benjamin West engraved in mezzotint by George Dawe in 1804. These mezzotint copies allowed the work to be disseminated widely and enabled people to own a version – particularly since the original was in Benjamin West’s personal collection.”

I ask Tim how the portrait came to be lost and he replies “By 1899 the miniature was recorded being in the possession of Charles Montague Richard Cleeve, agent to the Bayham Abbey estate near Lamberhurst in Kent, and subsequently found its way into the collection of the current vendor’s grandfather by 1960. Regrettably, and often the case with unsigned works, the artist’s name and importance of this work had been forgotten.”

Tim Williams is still inviting entries for Toovey’s next sale of fine paintings which will be held on Wednesday 18th March 2020, and can be contacted by telephoning 01903 891955 or at auctions@tooveys.com.

Maggi Hambling and Max Wall

Maggi Hambling., CBE, ‘Max Sitting (no.9)’, oil, signed and dated 1982

An important portrait by the leading British artist Maggi Hambling, from her famous Max Wall series of portraits, is to be auctioned at Toovey’s on Wednesday 19th June 2019.

Maggi Hambling was the artist in residence at the National Gallery in London during 1980 and 1981 as her work grew in confidence and power. It was during this time that she went to see Max Wall at the Garrick Theatre for the first time.

Max Wall’s public life as a clown and entertainer was in contrast to his often unhappy and disrupted private life.

In the summer of 1981 Max Wall played Vladimir in Samuel Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’ to much acclaim in the Royal Exchange production at the Round House. Hambling went to see him in the role on four or five occasions and began to work out a series of pictures based on his performance. As Max sat for her Maggi’s portraits of him became more intimate and insightful. Although they corresponded between October 1981 and Easter 1982 they remained apart.

In his absence, Hambling completed three of her most impressive paintings in the series. Among these is the picture illustrated, ‘Max Sitting (no.9)’. The painting is an act of recapitulation. Hambling gives expression to a painting of dreams, recalling a dream where a white owl bursts through a pane of glass in an isolated, lonely house. Max sits dreaming, his cigarette smoke hangs in the air as he waits on his muse represented by the owl’s arrival. The challenges of his life are signified by the cat’s shadow as the floor veers off in a nightmarish way. Her use of colour to create mood and atmosphere and the rendering of his features acts as though the portrait is a mirror into his soul. It gives voice to her concern for the individual human predicament.

Hambling would recall “At Easter 1982, Max reappeared and posed for drawings. After painting so long from my internal image of him, it was a traumatic experience to have him in front of me again, and to work from life.” Max thought it was marvellous that he should inspire Hambling in this way.

This powerful portrait would be reproduced on the cover of the exhibition catalogue for ‘Max Wall Pictures by Maggi Hambling’ at London’s National Portrait Gallery in 1983.

It was a measure of Hambling’s status as an artist when, in 1986, ‘Max Sitting (no.9)’ was hung alongside her fellow London Group artists, including Frank Auerbach, Peter Blake, Lucian Freud, David Hockney and Ron B. Kitaj at Manchester’s Whitworth Gallery in the ‘Artist and Model’ exhibition.

This important work will be auctioned at Toovey’s as part of their sale of fine paintings on Wednesday 19th June 2019 with a presale estimate of £10,000-£15,000. For more information telephone Nicholas Toovey on 01903 891955.

By Rupert Toovey, a senior director of Toovey’s, the leading fine art auction house in West Sussex, based on the A24 at Washington. Originally published in the West Sussex Gazette.