Charles Jervas Portrait Paintings

The Family Portrait British School, 20th century (painted in an earlier style) oil on canvas, unframed canvas: 30 x 24 inches provenance: private collection, England condition: overa...

After John Constable (British, 1776-1837) Portrait of A Man, c. 1800 Oil on canvas 23 3/4 x 19 3/4 in. Framed: 34 x 29 3/4 x 2 3/4 in. Sotheby'...

After SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS (1723 -1792) Portrait of Mrs Boone and her Daughter Oil on Canvas Canvas Size : 55.25 x 43.25 inches (140 x 110 cms) Framed size : 62 x 50 inches (157.5 x 127 cms) Provenance : Private Collection, France This present picture is a good quality copy of a Reynolds original. Copies are notoriously difficult to date, but judging by the style and the materials used it is most probable that we are dealing with a picture painted between 1890 and 1920. The professional standard of the work makes this painting a fine and substantial piece of decoration in the 18th century English manner. But in this case there is more… The Reynolds original was painted around 1774-6 and depicts Harriet Boone, wife of Charles Boone with their daughter, also Harriet – later the wife of Sir William Drummond K.C. This picture was by 1865 in the collection of one T Colleton Garth (a relative of the younger Harriet Boone), who lent it to an exhibition of Old Master pictures at the British Institution in 1865. It was engraved in 1866 by G.H. Emery – presumably after attracting some attention at that exhibition. The painting was then bought from Garth by the dealers Agnew in 1903 and sold the following year in 1904 to the famous Anglo-German diamond magnate Alfred Beit. Two years later in 1906, Beit - who would fill his later years with numerous philanthropic donations in Germany, England and South Africa - gave the Reynolds original of Mrs Boone to the Berlin Gallery...

This beautiful portrait was painted circa 1725 and is a fine example of the English eighteenth century portrait style. The artist has chosen to depict the lady against a plain background wearing a simple red silk dress and transparent headdress hanging down the back. The sitter is not shown with jewellery or any other elements to distract the viewer’s attached, thus highlighting the beauty of the young sitter. This restrained manner achieves a sense of understated elegance. The portrait genre was valued particularly highly in English society. Neither landscapes nor allegorical pictures were ever priced so highly at exhibitions and in the trade as depictions of people, from the highest aristocracy to scholars, writers, poets and statesmen. With the rich colouring and lyrical characterisation, these works are representative of the archetypal English portrait and is are very appealing examples of British portraiture...

Portrait of Colonel William Helyar (1621-1698) and Rachel Helyar (c.1633-1678) c.1656 Circle of Robert Walker (act. 1637-1656) These fascinating portraits, presented by Titan Fine Art, depict Colonel William Helyar, High Sheriff of Somersetshire, and his wife Rachel Helyar nee Wyndham, a daughter and co-heiress of Sir Hugh Wyndham, 1st Baronet (died 1663) of Pilsden Court, Dorset. They are exquisite examples of portraiture during the Interregnum when England was under various forms of republican government. The history of the seventeenth century is in part the story of the Stewarts and their approach to government and the church; their ebbing and flowing popularity and the disastrous decisions that led to Civil War. But another fascinating dynasty also ruled Britain: the Cromwell’s. Between 1653 and 1659, following the Civil Wars and experimental Commonwealth, Oliver Cromwell governed as Lord Protector followed by his son Richard. Cromwell’s Protectorate is usually imagined as a grey, joyless, military regime. But the reality was rather different. Cromwell presided over a colourful and fashionable court where music and the arts flourished, masques were revived and the first English operas performed. Too often the London of the 1650s is painted as puritanical and repressive in contrast to the vivid, fun-loving capital of the Restoration. Yet, under Cromwell, this was the city where the first coffee houses were opening, where a young Samuel Pepys was embarking on his career as a civil servant with the patronage of one of Cromwell’s councillors and where Christopher Wren was enjoying his new Chair of astronomy at Gresham College, appointed after the personal intervention of Cromwell. When Cromwell was invested as Lord Protector for the second time in 1657, the lavish ceremony in Westminster Hall and procession through London matched any previous coronation for pageantry with thousands lining the streets, bells ringing, bonfires blazing and free French wine flowing through the city. The gentleman in our portrait is Colonel William Helyar (1621-1698), Sheriff of Somerset and as a Royalist during the English Civil War. As one of the most prominent old families of the South-West, the Helyar’s family roots in Somerset can be traced back to 1616 when the Reverend William Helyar (1559-1645), chaplain to Elizabeth I, who was also a cousin by marriage, purchased the family residence Coker Court in East Coker, Somerset. He married a Devonshire heiress and several estates were bestowed on him as a result. He was a warm supporter of Charles I in the Civil War and was in residence at Exeter in 1643 when the Parliamentarians pillaged the cathedral. Elderly as he was, he boldly resisted them, but was beaten, pelted with mud, and locked up in a ship in the port and only let out on payment of £800. He retired to Coker where he died in 1645. His eldest son Henry died in 1634 and he was succeeded by his grandson, Colonel William Helyar, the sitter in our portrait. Colonel Helyar raised a troop of horse for King Charles I and was a colonel in the king's army. He was at Exeter when it was captured by the Parliamentary forces in 1646 and thus deemed ‘Traitor to the Parliament’. His estates were sequestered, but they were returned and he was discharged and pardoned on payment of £1,522. During the Restoration he was a Sheriff and he also helped James II repel the Monmouth Rebellion. The companion portrait represents the Colonel’s wife, Rachel Helyar (baptised 24th June 1633 at St Mary Aldermanbury, London – died 1678). She was the youngest daughter and co-heir of Sir Hugh Wyndham, 1st Baronet of Pilsdon Court and Mary Wyndham nee Alanson (Sir Hugh should not be confused with his first cousin once removed from Somerset, also Sir Hugh Wyndham (bef. 1604 - 1684). Rachel is a thirteenth generation descendant of King Henry III. The couple resided at the family seat of Coker Court (interestingly, within the churchyard, lie the remains of the poet T.S. Eliot who once wrote a poem about East Coker). A marriage settlement in extant shows that the couple were married in 1656; the portraits were most likely painted to mark this important event in the sitter’s lives. Rachel holds roses, the flower of love, and the putto pouring water is representative of her purity, and possibly, the plighting of troth. Colonel Helyar wears a gold wedding band. The couple had four sons: George, William (MP) (1662-1742), John, and Richard. Colonel Helyar died in December 1697 and was buried at Whitechurch, Dorset 2 Jan 1698. This period in which this portrait was painted was known as the Protectorate (1653-1659). This period offered relative peace, as the English Civil War ended in 1651. It was an interesting time for portraiture in England and Scotland – in between the great artistic geniuses and dominance of Van Dyke and Peter Lely. Much of the foreign-born artistic talent had fled England and Scotland during the Civil War and the artists that had remained were in great demand, in part due to the newly exposed strata of society wishing to be painted. Sitters on both sides were depicted in portraits in very similar ways. They are not, on the whole, shown as the Roundheads and Cavaliers of popular history. In fact, it is usually impossible to guess their political allegiances from the style of their portrait and their Parliamentarian and royalist iconographies, as portraits on both sides followed the same conventions and looked identical. Colonel Helyar has been depicted in armour and holding a Marshal’s baton of command, confirming his status. There is a great sense of realism and a particular delicacy, note the finely rendered hand resting on the rapier. Rachel is wearing a satin dress with expansive sleeves and a crimson drapery over her shoulder and held up by her left hand. She wears large pearl...

Portrait of a Gentleman French School, 18th century oil on canvas, unframed canvas : 25 x 20 inches provenance: private collection, France condition: the painting is in sound conditi...

Erasmus Quellinus The Continence of Scipio Oil on Canvas The painting is included in the Catalogue Raisonné of the artist. The Roman commande...

Cherubim with flowers - Oil on canvas cm.80x100 by Giulio Di Sotto, Italy, 2002. Gold leaf gilded wooden frame available on request This wonderful oil on canvas represents two putti...

The English Gentleman and his Country House English artist, circa 1800-1820 period Fine Georgian period portrait of a young English gentleman, seated with distant view of his country...

Portrait of a Nobleman European School, 20th century (painted after an earlier style) oil on canvas, framed framed: 35 x 29 inches canvas: 30 x 24 inches provenance: private collecti...

This exquisite work is an accomplished example of the type of portrait in vogue in England during the third quarter of the 17th century. There was a large demand for paintings in England and the demand for portraits was greatest. Many artists worked in this lucrative field, even artists who initially trained in the more respected field of history painting, such as Peter Lely, turned their attention to portraiture to meet this demand. Moreover, it was not uncommon for the British, even for men, to present a gift of one’s portrait to a friend - portraits were first and foremost a memento. Woman at court often vied with one another in displays of rich and fashionable clothing. The drapery was either painted from the customer’s own clothes or was perhaps a creation using fabrics loosely tacked together in the studio. This was a common practice of Lely and his studio props included swathes of fabric and pieces of cloth. The sitter’s sumptuous attire and gauze scarf, fastened by a large diamond brooch, is of the finest material and is representative of wealth. Pearls were an obligatory accompaniment since at least the 1630s and they are worn in abundance – in her hair, on her attire, as a necklace, and as pear-shaped earrings called unions d’excellence, reflecting the difficulty of finding perfectly matched pearls of such large size. They could range up to 20 millimetres in diameter. Her hairstyle help date the painting to the early 1660’s. Peter Lely, the son of a Dutch...

Portrait of a young aristocratic girl - 18th century English style Oil on canvas. Silvered wood frame. Size with frame cm 85 x 72.5 Size without frame cm 74.5 x 62.5 At the hear...