Lot Essay
The present lot appears to be an early version of a rectangular composition, painted in 1764-5, now in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand. It is first recorded by Horace Walpole and Sir Joshua Reynolds in their description of Nuneham-Courtney (The Harcourt Papers, loc. cit.), that the picture 'is worthy of Guido, and the subject such as Guido would have chosen'. Sir Walter Armstrong (loc. cit.) seems to have confused the picture and listed it twice under both 'Waldegrave' and 'Gloucester'.
Of further interest is that the lot has been painted on an unprimed canvas, a technique that Reynolds' pupil and principal biographer, James Northcote, describes in a letter to his brother Samuel, dated August 23, 1771, 'Sir Joshua always paints in the bare cloth unprepared, after the manners of the Venetians, whom he much admires (don't show this part of the letter to anybody because Sir Joshua would not choose to have it shown)' (see the catalogue of the exhibition Reynolds, ed. by N. Penny, 1986, p. 66).
Maria Walpole, born on July 3, 1739, was the illegitimate daughter of Sir Edward Walpole. In 1759, she married James, 2nd Earl Waldegrave, by whom she had three daughters, all of whom were the subject of Reynolds' famous portrait 'The Ladies Waldegrave', commissioned by their great-uncle, Horace Walpole. In 1766, three years after her husband's death, she secretly married George III's brother, William Henry, Duke of Gloucester. However, for a long time the marriage went unrecognized by the Royal Family and it was not until 1780 that they were restored to favor. During her own lifetime she was described as 'the handsomest woman in England' and was possessed of a great wit. She died on August 22, 1807
Of further interest is that the lot has been painted on an unprimed canvas, a technique that Reynolds' pupil and principal biographer, James Northcote, describes in a letter to his brother Samuel, dated August 23, 1771, 'Sir Joshua always paints in the bare cloth unprepared, after the manners of the Venetians, whom he much admires (don't show this part of the letter to anybody because Sir Joshua would not choose to have it shown)' (see the catalogue of the exhibition Reynolds, ed. by N. Penny, 1986, p. 66).
Maria Walpole, born on July 3, 1739, was the illegitimate daughter of Sir Edward Walpole. In 1759, she married James, 2nd Earl Waldegrave, by whom she had three daughters, all of whom were the subject of Reynolds' famous portrait 'The Ladies Waldegrave', commissioned by their great-uncle, Horace Walpole. In 1766, three years after her husband's death, she secretly married George III's brother, William Henry, Duke of Gloucester. However, for a long time the marriage went unrecognized by the Royal Family and it was not until 1780 that they were restored to favor. During her own lifetime she was described as 'the handsomest woman in England' and was possessed of a great wit. She died on August 22, 1807