.jpg?w=1)
PICTURES FROM THE MILDMAY COLLECTION
(lots 19-21 and 87)
When in 1823 Humphrey Mildmay (1794-1853) married Anne, daughter of Alexander Baring, later 1st Lord Ashburton, he was drawn into the world of the only British family of the time which, to use Professor Haskell's words had 'sustained a highly developed interest in the Old Masters through several generations'. In 1824, Mildmay became a partner of the great banking house, establishing a connection that was to endure until his grandson Anthony's retirement from Barings in 1940. Mildmay's grandfather-in-law, Sir Francis Baring, 1st Bt., founder of the fortune, had been an outstanding collector: so were both his elder sons, Thomas, who succeeded as second baronet and Alexander, later 1st Lord Ashburton. Sir Thomas's bachelor second son Thomas (1799-1873) was to prove even more energetic. His greatest coup, in association with the doyen of bankers of the age, Lewis Loyd, 1st Lord Overstone and his own partner and cousin-by-marriage Mildmay, was the acquisition through the dealer Chaplin in 1846 of the celebrated collection formed by Baron Verstolk van Soelen. The collection included masterpieces by many of the greatest Dutch seventeenth century artists, Rembrandt (Margaretha Trip, London, National Gallery), de Koninck, Hobbema, Ruisdael, Steen and others.
Mildmay was rather the junior partner in the Verstolk purchase: Overstone secured ten particularly fine pictures and Baring forty-three. Unlike them, Mildmay had no significant collection to supplement. With a single purchase, however, he acquired such pictures as Ruisdael's Shore at Egmond (London, National Gallery) and a notable group of works by the long fashionable Italianate masters, including lot 19, Berchem's Landscape with Herdsmen.
Mildmay's pictures eventually passed to his son Henry Bingham Mildmay (1828-1905), who became a partner of Barings in 1856. Like so many of his mother's family, he collected pictures. True to the family tastes, he also sought out the Dutch. Thus he obtained lot 21, Willem van Mieris's Owl on a Perch of 1686, after it was sold at Christie's in 1875.
Mildmay continued to buy pictures. He bought a number of lots at the great Hamilton Palace sale in 1882, and a few lots at the Blenheim sale, also at Christie's, in 1886. The Baring crisis of October 1890 brought collecting to an end. The great house at Flete, recently completed by Norman Shaw, was let: and on 24 June 1893 a substantial part of Mildmay's picture collection was dispersed at Christie's for a total of just over £44,000. That a significant number of important pictures were retained in 1893 testifies to Mildmay's continuing commitment as a collector.
Nicolaes Pietersz. Berchem (1620-1683)
A wooded Italianate Landscape, Peasants and Cattle at a Stream
Details
Nicolaes Pietersz. Berchem (1620-1683)
A wooded Italianate Landscape, Peasants and Cattle at a Stream
signed 'Berchem' (lower centre)
oil on canvas
23 3/8 x 18 5/8in. (59.3 x 47.3cm.)
A wooded Italianate Landscape, Peasants and Cattle at a Stream
signed 'Berchem' (lower centre)
oil on canvas
23 3/8 x 18 5/8in. (59.3 x 47.3cm.)
Provenance
Randon de Boisset; sale, Paris, 3 Feb. 1777, lot 107 (3,500 francs).
Le Boeuf; sale, Paris, 8 April 1783 (6,200 francs).
Monsieur B.; sale, Paris, 1827 (8,180 francs).
Sir Charles Bagot, G.C.B.; Christie's, 18 June 1836, lot 55 (535gns. to Brondgeest on behalf of Baron Verstolk van Soelen).
Baron Verstolk van Soelen, from whom purchased by a consortium and selected by Humphrey Mildmay, and by descent to
H. Bingham Mildmay, Flete, Devon; Christie's, 24 June 1893, lot 5 (420 gns. to Vokins).
C.H.T. Hawkins; Christie's, 11 May 1896, lot 68 (385gns. to Agnew's).
P.A.B. Widener, Philadelphia, 1913 and by descent to
J.E. Widener, Philadelphia, 1926.
Lord Mildmay of Flete.
Le Boeuf; sale, Paris, 8 April 1783 (6,200 francs).
Monsieur B.; sale, Paris, 1827 (8,180 francs).
Sir Charles Bagot, G.C.B.; Christie's, 18 June 1836, lot 55 (535gns. to Brondgeest on behalf of Baron Verstolk van Soelen).
Baron Verstolk van Soelen, from whom purchased by a consortium and selected by Humphrey Mildmay, and by descent to
H. Bingham Mildmay, Flete, Devon; Christie's, 24 June 1893, lot 5 (420 gns. to Vokins).
C.H.T. Hawkins; Christie's, 11 May 1896, lot 68 (385gns. to Agnew's).
P.A.B. Widener, Philadelphia, 1913 and by descent to
J.E. Widener, Philadelphia, 1926.
Lord Mildmay of Flete.
Literature
J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné, etc., London, 1834, V, p. 23, no. 56.
C. Hofstede de Groot, Verzeichnis der Werke, etc., IX, Esslingen, 1926, p. 165, no. 395.
C. Hofstede de Groot, Verzeichnis der Werke, etc., IX, Esslingen, 1926, p. 165, no. 395.
Exhibited
London, British Institution, 1834, no. 154.