Lot Essay
If the identification of the sitter suggested in the 1992 sale catalogue is correct, the portrait may be of Rebecca Bowles (1740-1818), who married Sir John Rushout (1738-1800), of Northwick Park, Worcestershire. He was created Baron Northwick in 1797. Known portraits of the sitter with her children include an oil painting by Angelika Kauffmann (1741-1807) and a pastel by Daniel Gardner (1750-1805). The Kauffmann is reproduced in the exhibition catalogue Angelika Kauffmann, Düsseldorf, Kunstmuseum, 1998-1999; Munich, Haus der Kunst, 1999; Chur, Bündner Kunstmuseum; the Gardner is illustrated in N. Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, London, 2006, p. 199. We are indebted to Neil Jeffares, London, for his kind assistance in the cataloguing of the present enamel.