French School, late 18th Century

Estimate

30,000 - 40,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

decorative panels with pairs of lovers and a turquerie
a set of three, all oil on canvas, two in ornate carved and gilt wood frames

Provenance

Henri-Louis Bischoffsheim (1829-1909), Bute House, 75 South Audley Street, London;
By descent to his daughter Amelia, wife of Sir Maurice Fitzgerald, 2nd Bt., and 20th Knight of Kerry, and removed by her to 16 Mansfield Street, London.

Literature

The King of Illustated Papers, 1902;
C. Hussey, "A London House of the XVIIIth Century - 16 Mansfield Street, the Residence of Lady Fitzgerald", in Country Life, vol. LXVII, 26 April 1930, pp. 604-9;
J. Cornforth, London Interiors, London 2000, pp. 97-103, the turquerie reproduced facing p. 100.

Catalogue Note

These three paintings formerly formed part of the decorations at Bute House in Mayfair, then the London residence of Henri-Louis Bischoffsheim (1829-1909) and now the Egyptian Embassy. Bischoffsheim, a member of a prominent European banking family, had settled in London around 1860, and purchased Bute House in 1872. These paintings formed part of the French decoration of the Boudoir, where they and other French 18th century paintings were flanked by decorative painted and embroidered panels. Surviving photographs of the interiors at Bute House display an interior of almost Rothschildean opulence. The ceiling of the Blue Drawing Room, for example, housed Giambattista Tiepolo's masterpiece, Allegory with Venus and Time now in the National Gallery, London (inv. no. 6387, M. Levey, National Gallery Catalogues: the 17th and 18th century Italian Schools, London 1971, pp. 228-31) which remained in situ until sold by the Embassy in 1969. Bischoffsheim also formed an outstanding collection of Old Master paintings, including important Engish portraits by Hoppner, Reynolds and Romney, and major Dutch paintings including a View of Amsterdam by Ruisdael (formerly Eindhoven, Phillips Collection), Ochtervelt's Oyster party (Private Collection), Philips Koninck's Landscape (Copenhagen, Statens Museum), and Anthonis Mor's Isabella of Valois (Eindhoven, Phillips Collection). The collection also included good 18th-century French pictures, such as Nattier's full-length portrait of the Duc de Penthièvre and François Hubert Drouais' House of Cards and Blowing Bubbles. Bischoffsheim enjoyed very strong family connections to Paris, and it is more than likely that the present paintings were acquired there. The collection was sold at auction at Christie's on 7 May 1926, following the sale of the house after the death of his widow in 1922. These paintings were not sold for they were removed by Bischoffsheim's daughter Amelia, later Lady Fitzgerald, who used them to decorate the drawing room of her London house in Mansfield Street, where she stayed until the war. Their subsequent history is not yet known, although other paintings from her collection, including Michele Marieschi's Rialto Bridge were later acquired by the National Trust.

We are grateful to Alastair Laing for his assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.