Portrait of Major Edward Topham (1751-1820), half-length in a blue coat, holding a quill

Details

JOHN RUSSELL, R.A. (PLYMOUTH 1745-1806 HULL)
Portrait of Major Edward Topham (1751-1820), half-length in a blue coat, holding a quill
signed and dated 'J. Russell pinxt./ 1788' (centre left)
pastel
23 1/2 x 17 1/4 in.. (59.7 x 43.8 cm.)

Provenance

The sitter, and by descent to his grandson
Rear-Admiral Trollope.
J. Pierpont Morgan, 1907.
Anonymous sale; Christies, London, 10 July 1984, lot 150.
with Spink, London, where purchased by the present owner.

Literature

J. Boaden, Life of Mrs Inchbold, 1833, I, p. 271.
G.C. Williamson, John Russell, R.A., 1894, p. 167.
N. Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, online edition, J.64.2818.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, 1788, no. 439.
London, The Clarendon Gallery, The art of the pastel, April - August 1986, no. 36.

Engraved

P.W. Tomkins, 1790.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Annabel Kishor Specialist

akishor@christies.com +44 (0) 20 7389 2709

Lot Essay

Topham was a playwright, pamphleteer, and adjutant of the Horse-Guards. In 1787 he founded the daily paper The World, where he first published his Life of the late John Elwes, which ran through twelve editions and was described by Horace Walpole as 'one of the most amusing anecdotal books in the English Language'.

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