Master Paintings and Drawings Part II
Master Paintings and Drawings Part II
Property from a Private Collection, California
Allan Ramsay
Portrait of a lady, three-quarter length, seated at a harpsichord, holding a sheet of music
Lot Closed
May 26, 02:28 PM GMT
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Property from a Private Collection, California
Allan Ramsay
Edinburgh 1713 - 1784 Dover
Portrait of a lady, three-quarter length, seated at a harpsichord, holding a sheet of music
oil on canvas
canvas: 47 by 35½ in.; 119 by 90.2 cm.
framed: 55¾ by 46¼ in.; 141.6 by 117.5 cm.
Anonymous sale (Property from a Private Canadian Collection), New York, Sotheby's, 1 February 2018, lot 600;
There acquired.
Allan Ramsay was among the most fashionable and sought-after portraitists in London in the 18th century. He quickly established his reputation in this city as a sophisticated and elegant portraitist who was able to expertly capture the likeness of his sitters, drawing on his early studies in Italy with some of the most fashionable Italian portrait painters of the era, Francesco Imperiali and Pompeo Batoni. The present portrait appears to be an early example by the artist, possibly done at the end of the 1730s. The beautiful sitter, who is placed next to a harpsichord, holds a music notation that reads 'Francesco Maria Vericini', an Italian composer who wrote operas in London at the time this painting was made.
We remain grateful to Dr. Brian Allen for endorsing the attribution to Allan Ramsay on the basis of photographs when this painting last appeared at auction.