Thomas Christopher Hofland (1777-1843)

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

Details

Thomas Christopher Hofland (1777-1843)

A View of White Knights across the Lake; and A View of White Knights from the Park with a Lady sketching

17 x 23¾in. (43.2 x 60.3cm.)a pair (2)

Provenance

The Duke of Marlborough, White Knights, Berkshire
Captain E.G. Spencer-Churchill, M.C., Northwick Park; Christie's, 25 June 1965, lot 97 (1,700 gns. to Agnew)
with Thomas Agnew & Sons, London 1965, by whom sold to the present owner

Literature

Northwick Park, Catalogue of Pictures, 1864, nos. 396 and 397, p. 45
T. Borenius, Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures at Northwick Park, 1921, nos. 306A and 306B, p. 122

Exhibited

London, Tate Gallery, Landscape in Britain, c. 1750-1850, November 1973-February 1974, no. 252 (second picture only)

Engraved

T.C. Hofland, 1819

Lot Essay

In 1816 the Duke of Marlborough commissioned Hofland and his wife Barbara, the novelist, to produce an illustrated account of White Knights, the Duke's house near Reading. The privately printed book was published in 1819 but apparently at the Hofland's expense, the Duke failing to pay their costs (see Mrs. Hofland's letters to Lord de Tabley reprinted in D. Hall, 'The Tabley House Papers', Walpole Society, XXXVIII, 1962, p.77). Two further pictures of White Knights by the artist, measuring 10 x 14in. each, were commissioned by the Duke (T. Borenius op. cit. nos. 306C and 306D)

More from British Pictures

View All