Lot Essay
For the attribution, compare the Portrait of Lady Grisel Baillie in the collection of Lord Binning, Mellerstain (E. Waterhouse, The Dictionary of British 18th century Painters, Woodbridge, 1981, p. 394).
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THE DI PORTANOVA COLLECTION
THE BARON AND BARONESS DI PORTANOVA
A MEMOIR BY MEREDITH ETHERINGTON-SMITH
To their many, many friends all over the world, it is difficult to believe two such life-enhancers as Sandra and Ricky have given their last party and spoiled their last house guest at Arabesque in Acapulco, surely one of the world's most extraordinary houses.
Ricky and Sandra were destined for each other. They loved each other; they live an enchanted life and they shared their happiness and good fortune unstintingly. Ricky had the dashing good looks of a fifties' movie star - he always reminded me of Errol Flynn. And Sandra! To see the Baroness in ballgown and jewels setting forth from Claridges, in her sea-green Rolls Royce, was to see a rare and exotic beauty in full sail. The Portanova's house in River Oaks, Houston was crammed full of wonderful pictures, furniture and objets de vertu. I remember one dinner party there; forty people were seated beside the pool at tables which Sandra had caused to be set with their Salvador Dali vermeil flatware together with the huge 'Moth and Flame' candelabras, which illuminated the event.
Their house in Acapulco was no less full of the beautiful and the extraordinary culled from their travels all over the world. Ricky would show one a rare shell, or an exquisite piece of Fabérgé hidden in a box. They assembled marvelous tablescapes and the dining room was never set with the same arrangement.
'Living well is the best revenge' might have been coined as Sandra and Ricky's motto. They lived an enchanted life and the world is poorer for their absence.
MARIA VERELST (Vienna 1680-1744 London)
Portrait of Sarah, 1st Duchess of Marlborough, seated three-quarter-length, in a black dress, by a red curtain before an arched doorway, a landscape beyond
Details
MARIA VERELST (Vienna 1680-1744 London)
Portrait of Sarah, 1st Duchess of Marlborough, seated three-quarter-length, in a black dress, by a red curtain before an arched doorway, a landscape beyond
oil on canvas
42¼ x 40¼ in. (107.4 x 102.1 cm.)
Portrait of Sarah, 1st Duchess of Marlborough, seated three-quarter-length, in a black dress, by a red curtain before an arched doorway, a landscape beyond
oil on canvas
42¼ x 40¼ in. (107.4 x 102.1 cm.)
Provenance
The Marquess of Abergavenny; sale, Sotheby's, London, 14 May 1986, lot 181, as Studio of Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt. (£1870).