拍品 167
  • 167

SIR PETER LELY | Portrait of a man, possibly a self-portrait

估價
70,000 - 100,000 GBP
招標截止

描述

  • Portrait of a man, possibly a self-portrait 
  • oil on canvas
  • 76.2 x 63.5 cm.; 30 x 25 in.

來源

Sam Lord's Castle, Barbados 1950s–1994;
With Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1994;
From whom acquired by the present owner.

展覽

Williamsburg, Virginia, Muscarelle Museum of Art, on loan 2015–17 (as Portrait of a Man, possibly a Self-Portrait).

Condition

The canvas is lined, the paint surface is relatively dirty and the varnish relatively discoloured. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals a milky varnish underneath which tiny retouchings are visible, most notably scattered in the sitter's hand, cloak, and face, but the painting appears in otherwise good condition. Offered in a carved and gilt wood frame with some losses.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

拍品資料及來源

This sensitively handled, charming and enigmatic portrait dates to circa 1645–50, shortly after Lely first arrived in England. As first pointed out by Dr. Malcolm Rogers in the 1990s, in both the handling and the physiognomy of the sitter it closely relates to a series of pictures of musicians painted by Lely in the late 1640s that originally hung at Coombe Abbey in the Craven Collection.1 Clearly intended to have hung as a group, five of these pictures are securely recorded at Coombe in an inventory taken in the early eighteenth century, including a Boy playing a Jew’s Harp and a Man Playing a Pipe (both Tate Gallery, London), a Man Playing a Violin, a Girl Playing a Theorbo-Lute and a Man Playing an Eleven-course Lute (all Private Collection). All characterised by a darker, more typically Dutch palette that Lely would gradually lose during his early years in England, the Coombe pictures are marked for their unparalleled intimacy. Likely modelled on close acquaintances of the artist, the latter of the five has long been thought to represent the artist himself. A sixth picture of A Man playing the Violin (fig. 2), which is not recorded in the early eighteenth century inventory but is likely to have originally formed part of the group as well, is also believed to depict the artist and appears to be a pendant to the Man Playing an Eleven-course Lute. The sitter in this portrait, with his rounded chin, neat moustache, thin lips, aquiline nose, large lidded brown eyes, high set eyebrows and flowing long brown hair, appears to be the same man as both the violin player and the lute player in the Coombe paintings. If we are to accept them as depicting Lely himself then we must accept this as an early self portrait of the artist. The same man appears again in a number of Lely’s early paintings, most famously The Concert (The Courtauld Gallery, London), where he can be seen seated, centre-left of the composition playing a bass viol (also called a viola da gamba), looking over his shoulder to the female singer behind him. We know that Lely loved music and his musicians are all convincingly depicted, holding and playing their instruments correctly. The sitter’s physiognomy also closely relates to that in the artist’s self-portrait in coloured chalks that remained in the hands of Lely’s descendants until it was sold in these Rooms, on 6 July 2016, lot 216 (fig. 1).

Sir Oliver Millar commented of this picture that it belonged to that 'unexpectedly attractive phase of his [Lely’s] career before, not after, he had committed himself to becoming a successful and fashionable portrait painter in London. The works from this period are invariably delightful'.2 Be that as it may, Lely did rise to the challenge presented by English patronage and, filling the void left by the untimely death of Sir Anthony van Dyck, established himself as the foremost portraitist at the Restoration Court of King Charles II. Whilst his finest late works are rightly celebrated for their superlative baroque virtuosity, these much rarer early works have what the late Director of the Tate, Sir Norman Reid, described as a 'sombre but gracious realism' that is unsurpassed by any British seventeenth century artist.3

1 Coombe Abbey inventory, 1739 (Craven MS, cited by O. Millar, Sir Peter Lely 1618–80, exh. cat., National Portrait Gallery, London 1978, p. 41).
2 Private correspondence with the present owner, circa June 1995.
3 Sir Norman Reid to Lord Crawford, letter of 3 October 1966: Tate Archive, TG 4/2/1369/1.