ENGLISH SCHOOL, CIRCA 1830 | Elegant ladies in a townhouse interior

Richard Sidney Timewell (1913-2002), Villa Léon l’Africain, Tangiers, Morocco;

His sale, Paris, Daguerre, 15 June 2005, lot 59;

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby’s Olympia, 18 May 2006, lot 49;

Private collection, London.

It seems likely that the canvasses hanging on the wall of this elegant interior would have been by the celebrated painter of landscape and rural life, Thomas Barker of Bath (1769-1847). Richard Sidney Timewell (see Provenance) was a scholar and collector. He worked at Sotheby's London and New York as Head of the Furniture Department before retiring in 1967 to Villa Léon l'Africain in Tangier with his partner, the renowned interior decorator Michael Raymond. This canvas hung among the Timewell collection at Villa Léon l’Africain until its sale in 2005. The Villa was subsequently acquired by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé in 2007.