Spetchley - Property from the Berkeley Collection
Spetchley - Property from the Berkeley Collection
Auction Closed
December 11, 04:05 PM GMT
Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
CIRCLE OF FRANCOIS-XAVIER FABRE
Portrait of a gentleman, traditionally identified as Henry Swinburne (1743-1803), three-quarter-length, seated at a table with a quill and musical manuscript, holding a violin
oil on canvas
91.9 by 71cm.; 36⅛by 28in.
Inventory, 1893, in the Corridors and Landing;
Inventory, 1949, in the Grand Staircase
Henry Swinburne was a travel writer who wrote accounts of journeys to Spain, the two Sicilies, and France. While abroad it would not have been unusual for such an aristocrat to have picked up some musical culture, and indeed the sitter here appears to be in the act of composition. Swinburne's granddaughter, Henrietta Sophia Benfield, married Robert Berkeley (1794-1874) on 24 January 1822.