Spetchley - Property from the Berkeley Collection

Spetchley - Property from the Berkeley Collection

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 40. 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.

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

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.