Mary Beale

Self-Portrait of the Artist, English, 17th century.

C.1680

Portrait of Johann Quantz (1697-1773), flautist and composer, wearing a blue velvet coat, waistcoat and breeches, standing in a garden landscape with ...

Portrait of a lady wearing a white gown with a red cloak, pearls in her hair and draped over one shoullder, standing beside a classical urn with a basket of flowers, c.1765. The portrait is believed to be a companion portrait of a John (1741-1816) or James (1751-1807) Durno which is housed in an identical frame. The sitter is possibly either the wife of John who was Janes Byres of Stonywood or John and James's sister Elizabeth. (James never married). The Durno family were based around the Aberdeen area of Scotland and John was an advocate in the area and then later a customs official in Jamaica. James was a successful timber merchant, spending time in the Baltic before being made His Majesty's Consul in Memel, Prussia. The portrait is likely to have been painted before Tilly travelled to India in 1768, when John, Jane and Elizabeth would have been in their twenties. We are gtrateful to Mark Beattie for sharing his family knowlege and research on the portrait. Provenance: With W. C. Beattie in the mid 19th century, and by descent through the family Private collection, Kent With thanks to Hugh Belsey who has confirmed this to be the work of Tilly Kettle from photographs. Tilly Kettle (1735-1786) was born in London, the third of six children by Henry Kettle (c.1704-c.1773), a coach painter, and his wife Ann. He attended William Shipley...

A painting of Lord Methuen’s Spaniels Gipsy and Fairy, by William Barraud, standing beside a classical urn in a landscape by a lake, probably in the grounds of Corsham Court in Wiltshire, the Methuen family country seat. Signed and dated 'W Barraud...

A 17th century English portrait of a lady by Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680), half-length in a painted feigned oval, wearing a green silk gown with chestnut coloured cloak over one shoulder, her fair hair curled in the fashionable ringlet style of the period. Oil on canvas in an English giltwood 'Lely' frame. We are grateful to Diana Dethloff and Catharine MacLeod (who are currently working on a Lely catalogue raisonné) for their confirmation of Lely as the artist from photograph analysis of this previously unidentified early work. Provenance: Private collection Nottingham until 2021 Mellors and Kirk sale December 2000, lot 1173 The sitter is likely to have been from an upper class or aristocratic family in court circles, who were the main source of Lely`s patronage. The simple composition serves to highlight the beauty of the sitter through portraying her pale decolletage and complexion, set against the gentle gaze of her blue eyes, the soft blush of her cheeks and her full red lips. Peter Lely (1618-1680) was originally of dutch origin and became Principle Painter to the King in 1661, following in the footsteps of Van Dyck who had died in 1641. He dominated the portrait painting scene in England for over 20 years, creating a distinctive 'court look' in his work which had a strong influence on many other artists. He had an extremely successful and popular portrait practice which meant that he soon had to develop production methods that could accommodate the high demand for portraits, and also for copies and versions of them which were given as gifts to family and courtiers. The use of studio assistants was a common practice for busy artists and as with Van Dyck, Lely is known to have used specialist assistants to execute particular parts of his paintings. Artists who worked in Lely`s studio included John Baptist Gaspars who specialised in drapery painting, William Wissing, John Greenhill...

A black pointer in a woodland landscape by John Frederick Herring Senior, circa 1830. Oil on canvas in a giltwood frame. Provenance: Arthur Ackerman and Son Frost and Reed Blains, Bruton Place, London John Frederick Herring, born in London in 1795, was the son of a London merchant of Dutch parentage, who had been born overseas in America. The first eighteen years of Herring's life were spent in London, where his greatest interests were drawing and horses. In 1814, at the age of 18, he moved to Doncaster in the north of England, and by 1815, had married Ann Harris. His sons John Frederick Herring Jr., Charles Herring, and Benjamin Herring...

Portrait of Henrietta Pelham-Holles (née Godolphin) (1701-1776), Duchess of Newcastle, standing in a wooded landscape with a river beyond, three-quarter length wearing an ivory silk ...

This delightful turn of the century (early 20th century) oil on canvas painting represents an Italian landscape with one of the most famous squares in the world: Piazza San Marco in ...

Provenance: Suida-Manning Collection, New York Private Collection Exhibited: Venetian Paintings of the Sixteenth Century, Finch College Museum of Art, New York, October 30-December 15, 1963, no. 31. Veronese & His Studio in North American Collections, Birmingham Museum of Art, Oct. 1-Nov. 15, 1972, and Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Dec. 5-Dec. 31, 1972 Literature: Robert L. Manning, A Loan Exhibition of Venetian Paintings of the Sixteenth Century, exh. cat. New York 1963, cat. no. 31ill., as by Veronese Stephen Clayton and Edward Weeks, eds., introduction by David Rosand, Veronese & His Studio in North American Collections, Birmingham 1972, as by Veronese, p. 38 ill. Terisio Pignatti, Veronese, Venice 1976, I, p. 199, cat. no. A225, II, fig. 908, as attributed to Veronese Terisio Pignatti and Filippo Pedrocco, Veronese; catalogo completo dei dipinti, Florence 1991, no. 54°, as attributed to Veronese. Terisio Pignatti and Filippo Pedrocco, Veronese, Milan 1995, II, pp. 517-518ill., cat. no. A 56, under attributed paintings, by Veronese and workshop) John Garton, Grace and Grandeur; The Portraiture of Paolo Veronese, London-Turnhout 2008, p. 237, fig. 77, cat. no. R16, as workshop of Veronese. Scarsellino’s art is widely regarded as critical link between the Renaissance and the Baroque styles in Emilian painting; not only was he an important transmitter of the heritage of the Renaissance, but he was also open to innovative ideas, and was one of the earliest to experiment with the trend to naturalism that would become fundamental to art of the new century. Born around 1550, he received his earliest training from his father Sigismondo, an architect and painter; it was probably while working at his father’s side as a youth that he acquired the nickname Scarsellino, or “little Scarsella”. After absorbing the principles of his art in Ferrara and Parma, he went to Venice in 1570, staying for four years and working in the shop of Veronese. In the following decade, his art —especially in terms of its piety and its development of landscape— demonstrates a strong sympathy with that of the Carracci, with whom he worked in 1592-1593 at the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara. Maria Angela Novelli and later Alessandra Frabetti both propose that Scarsellino traveled to Rome, although such a trip has not been documented; if he did travel to Rome, it probably would have occurred during the years that Scarsellino’s colleagues Agostino and Annibale Carracci were there, that is, beginning in 1595 and until 1609. The last decades of Scarsellino’s career again involve stylistic experimentation, this time in a manner that would bring his work very close to the progressive figurative naturalism of Carlo Bononi and prepare the way for Guercino. The present portrait of a distinguished gentleman had been long thought to be by Paolo Veronese and was in fact attributed to him by such distinguished connoisseurs as Adolfo Venturi and Wilhelm Suida. The portrait’s style is, however, distinct from Veronese’s, although clearly indebted to it, and the attribution to the young Scarsellino is wholly convincing. The painting would then date from the 1570s – a date confirmed by the costume the subject wears. The puffed hat that appears in the painting had a rather short-lived vogue in the early 1570s. One sees it in Giambattista Moroni’s Portrait of Count...

Provenance: with Leo Blumenreich and Julius Böhler, Munich, 1924 Dr. Frederic Goldstein Oppenheimer (1881-1963), San Antonio, Texas; by whom given to: Abraham M. Adler, New York, un...

Joseph Badger (c. 1707–1765) was a portrait artist in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 18th century. This amazing painting depicting a young boy with a bird. oil on canvas cm 93 x73...

Amazing painting of Cleopatra oil on canvas with a gilt wood frame. Attributed to Giuseppe Diamantini (Fossombrone 1621-Venice 1705) The dramatic subject of the painting depicts th...

Inscribed, upper left: “Miss Laura Keppel” Provenance: Commissioned from the artist and by descent in the Keppel family estate, Lexham Hall, Norfolk, to: Major Bertram William Arnol...