Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 6

Joseph Highmore
Portrait of a young boy holding his pet squirrel

About the Item

Joseph Highmore (London 1692-1780 Canterbury) Portrait of a young boy holding his pet squirrel Oil on canvas Canvas Size - 30 x 25 in Provenance Sale, Sotheby's New York, Old Master Paintings, 21st October 1988, Lot 190, sold for $10,500; with Julian Simon Fine Art, London; where purchased by the present owner. Joseph Highmore (1692-1780) was an English portrait and historical painter, illustrator and author. Highmore was born in London, the third son of Edward Highmore, a coal merchant, and nephew of Thomas Highmore, Serjeant Painter to William III. He displayed early ability but was discouraged by his family from taking up art professionally, and began a legal training instead. At the ending of a clerkship at the age of 17 (during which he continued to attend a drawing academy run by Godfrey Kneller and lectures on anatomy by William Cheselden), he abandoned the law and started to work as a painter. On the revival of the Order of the Bath in 1725, he was selected to paint the knights in full costume. The years 1732 to 1734 were spent on a tour of the Netherlands and France. In the next few years he received patronage from the royal family, but during the 1740s began to cater more for a middle-class clients. In 1762 Highmore sold the contents of his studio and retired to Canterbury, where he lived with his daughter and son-in-law. Highmore died aged 87 on 3 March 1780. He was buried in sheep's wool (to comply with a 17th-century statute to encourage the wool trade) in the fifth bay of the south aisle of Canterbury Cathedral. His wife Susanna Highmore (née Hiller) was a poet, though little of her work was published. His son Anthony Highmore (1719–99) was an artist, one of whose 15 children, Anthony Highmore Jnr. (1758–1829), became a writer on legal affairs and a social activist. In addition to his work as a portraitist, Highmore painted works illustrating biblical subjects, historical painting being a style which Highmore had picked up on his travels in France. One such biblical painting is Hagar and Ishmael, which Highmore donated to the Foundling Hospital for the purpose of decorating its Court Room. The painting is now part of the Foundling Hospital art collection at The Foundling Museum in London. In 1744, Highmore painted a series of 12 paintings after scenes from Samuel Richardson's Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded, which were engraved by Benoist and Louis Truchy. Some of them were displayed within the temporary exhibition, Basic Instincts, curated by Jacqueline Riding at The Foundling Museum from September 29, 2017 to January 7, 2018. The exhibition explored Georgian attitudes to love, desire, and female reputation through the radical paintings of Joseph Highmore. One of the most prominent paintings displayed was The Angel of Mercy (c.1746), which is thought to be a painting draft for a larger piece.
More From This SellerView All
  • Portrait of a gentleman in red military uniform
    By David Morier
    Located in Stoke, Hampshire
    David Morier (1705-1770) Portrait of a gentleman in red military uniform Oil on canvas Canvas Size - 32 x 24 in Framed Size - 39 1/2 x 31 in Provenance: Sale, Christie's London, 21s...
    Category

    18th Century Old Masters Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Oil

  • Portrait of a young gentleman, seated beside a tree
    By John Downman
    Located in Stoke, Hampshire
    Attributed to John Downman (1750-1824) Portrait of a young gentleman, seated beside a tree Oil on canvas Canvas Size - 30 x 25 in John Downman was a fashionable portrait painter in the second half of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth. He was born in Ruabon, North Wales, the son of Francis Downman, an attorney of Devonshire stock, and his wife Charlotte, daughter of Francis Goodsend, the private secretary to George I. In 1768 John became a pupil of Benjamin West and the following year attended the Royal Academy Schools. He showed his first portrait at the RA in 1770 and his first subject painting in 1773, exhibiting there until 1819. From 1773-4 Downman, by now married, studied in Rome in the company of Joseph Wright of Derby. By 1777 Downman was living in Cambridge, but the following year set up a studio at Bedford Street, Covent Garden. From 1779-1804 he lived at increasingly fashionable London addresses, including Bond Street, Jermyn Street and Piccadilly. Downman painted few large-scale oil portraits...
    Category

    18th Century Old Masters Portrait Paintings

    Materials

    Oil

  • Portrait of a gentleman, traditionally identified as Thomas Carey
    By Paul II van Somer
    Located in Stoke, Hampshire
    Circle of Paul van Somer (Antwerp c. 1577-1621 London) Portrait of a gentleman, traditionally identified as Thomas Carey (1597-1634), youngest son of Thomas, 1st Earl of Monmouth Oil...
    Category

    17th Century Old Masters Portrait Paintings

    Materials

    Oil

  • Self Portrait
    Located in Stoke, Hampshire
    Frank Samuel Eastman (1878-1964) Self Portrait Oil on canvas Canvas - 34 1/2 x 26 1/2 in Framed - 40 x 32 in Provenance: by descent from the artist Frank Eastman...
    Category

    20th Century Victorian Portrait Paintings

    Materials

    Oil

  • Figlio & Louille Bariatinsky
    Located in Stoke, Hampshire
    Princess Olga Bariatinsky (1881-1974) Figlio & Louille Bariatinsky Oil on artist board Signed with initials lower left Painting Size - 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 in Framed Size - 13 x 10 in Prov...
    Category

    20th Century Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Oil

  • A dark bay racehorse held by his trainer at Newmarket Heath
    Located in Stoke, Hampshire
    Benjamin Killingbeck (act. 1769-1783) A dark bay racehorse held by his trainer on a racecourse Oil on canvas Canvas Size - 40 x 50 in Framed Size ...
    Category

    18th Century Old Masters Animal Paintings

    Materials

    Oil

You May Also Like

Recently Viewed

View All