The Lyon Master

James Francis Turner, The Old Rectory, Wem, Shropshire, c. 1950;

Thence by descent;

Until sold, London, Bonhams, 8 December 2010, lot 85 (as attributed to The Lyon Master);

Acquired subsequently by the present owner.

These charming vedute compare closely to a group of works that Charles Beddington has attributed to The Lyon Master:¹ a hitherto anonymous artist working in the immediate circle of Bernardo Bellotto (1722–1780) and his younger brother, Pietro (1725–c. 1805), whose sobriquet derives from his best-known painting in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon.² The canvas depicting the Doge's Palace is particularly similar to a picture of the same view, with minor variations in the staffage and cloud formations, that sold in 2000 as Bernardo Bellotto, but which Beddington has since assigned to The Lyon Master.³ Another canvas given to The Lyon Master, which likewise features the Doge's Palace, sold at Sotheby's London in 2013 for £64,900.⁴

¹ C. Beddington, 'Bernardo Bellotto and his circle in Italy. Part II: the Lyon Master and Pietro Bellotti', in The Burlington Magazine, vol. CXLVII, no. 1222, January 2005, pp. 16–25.

² Inv. no. B 472; oil on canvas, 79 x 121 cm.

³ Oil on canvas, 47.3 x 73.7 cm.; London, Sotheby's, 14 December 2000, lot 90 (one of a pair); Beddington 2005, pp. 18–19, reproduced in colour fig. 12.

⁴ Oil on canvas, 78 x 120 cm.; London, Sotheby's, 5 November 2013, lot 131.