George Lambert (1700-1765)

THE PROPERTY OF A LADY SOLD IN AID OF CHARITY The following two lots from a Private Collection were bought on the advice of R.W. Symonds (d.1958), in his day the greatest expert and adviser on Georgian furniture in England and America. He was involved in the formation of many of the great private collections of English furniture and clocks formed in the first half of this century, including those of Geoffrey Blackwell, Samuel Messer, Sir John Prestige, Claude Rotch, J.S. Sykes and most importantly Percival D. Griffiths. The furniture from the collection of which these two pictures form a part, was also bought on the advice of R.W. Symonds, and will be sold in these rooms on 16 November 1995.

Details

George Lambert (1700-1765)

A wooded River Landscape, with figures on a path and others crossing a bridge in the foreground, a ruined castle visible beyond

signed and dated, lower centre 'G. Lambert/1755'

43 x 51in. (109.2 x 129.5cm.)

Provenance

Painted for John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, and by descent to the 12th Duke of Bedford; Christie's, 19 January 1951, lot 30 (110gns. to the present owner).

Literature

G. Scharf, A Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures at Woburn Abbey, 1890, no. 383.
E. Einberg, George Lambert, Catalogue for the Exhibition, Kenwood, Iveagh Bequest, 1970, under no. 28.

Lot Essay

This and the following picture are from the series painted for the 4th Duke of Bedford: another is in the Tate Gallery, London.

The present work is the earliest of the three known versions of this composition. A smaller version (23½ x 32½in.), signed and dated 1756, was included in the 1970 Kenwood Exhibition, no. 28 (op.cit.). Together with its pair (no. 27 in the exhibition), it was commissioned by John Rich, manager of Covent Garden, whose landlord was the Duke of Bedford. Another version, also smaller, and dated 1757, is in the Bristol Art Gallery. Elizabeth Einberg records two watercolour sketches of this composition (op.cit., nos. 35 and 36) which she believes may be by pupils of Lambert.

We would like to thank Elizabeth Einberg for her help in compiling this catalogue entry.

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