George Romney

both half-length, he wearing a brown coat and wig, she a green dress and lace hood

STRUCTURE Both canvases have been lined. PAINT SURFACE Both paintings appear to be in good condition. ULTRAVIOLET Examination under ultraviolet light reveals minor scattered retouching to both canvases, as well as an opaque layer of varnish overall. FRANME Both paintings are unframed.
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The elder brother of Thomas Hutton Rawlinson, who was painted by Romney in c.1759, Abraham was the eldest son of Abraham Rawlinson, the first importer of mahogany into Great Britain. A principal merchant in Lancaster, at a time when the city rivalled Liverpool as one of the great mercantile centres in the country, he married Ellenora Godsalve in 1739, here depicted in a companion portrait.

Ellenora died in 1766, and therefore it would appear that her portrait is dateable to Romney's visit to Lancaster and Kendal in 1765. There is a second version of this work at Meols Hall, inscribed with the sitter's name, which is accompanied by an earlier portrait of her husband, and it is very likely that the present portraits were executed at different times. Certainly the portrait of Mr Rawlinson appears stylistically to date from Romney's slightly later 1767 visit to Lancaster.

These portraits are undocumented in the standard Romney literature but other members of the Rawlinson family of Lancaster patronised Romney in the 1760s (see Judge's Lodgings Museum, Lancaster for the portrait of Abraham Rawlinson's younger brother). We are grateful to Alex Kidson for his help on cataloguing this lot.