Portrait of a gentleman, seated small half length at a table, reading a document

It was Mr.A. Staring who in 1925 pointed out that the by then forgotten painter P.C. Wonder from Utrecht had enjoyed an interesting career in England (A. Staring, 'Een Schots verzamelaar en de Nederlandsche kunst', Oud Holland, XLII, 1925, pp.97-108). When the collector John Murray toured through Holland in 1819 he met the painter and invited him to work in England. Wonder stayed for more than a decade. Some of his paintings of art lovers of Murray's circle inspecting works of his picture gallery have made their way to the National Portrait Gallery in London.

See illustration