Double portrait of the artist, half-length, with a palette and brushes and Brigadier-General Robert Killigrew (1660-1707), half-length, in armour

Details

Antonio Verrio (Lecce c. 1639-1707 London)
Double portrait of the artist, half-length, with a palette and brushes and Brigadier-General Robert Killigrew (1660-1707), half-length, in armour
signed 'Ant.o Vario.' (lower centre) and with the arms of the Killigrew family (upper left)
oil on canvas
30 x 40½ in (76.2 x 102.7 cm)

Provenance

J.D. Wood sale, 25 May 1937, lot 1108.

Literature

E. Waterhouse, The Dictionary of 16th & 17th Century British Painters, London, 1988, p. 284, illustrated.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Sale room notice

We are grateful to Cécile Brett for dating this double-portrait to circa 1705/6 and for providing the following additional provenance:
Collection of the 6th Lord Henniker, Thornham Hall, Suffolk.

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Lot Essay

The present portrait of Verrio would appear to date between the two other known (single) self-portraits: the first at Burghley House, Lincolnshire, where Verrio worked for John Cecil, 5th Earl of Exeter, between circa 1688 and 1698; and the second purchased by the National Portrait Gallery in 1936, showing an elderly, wig-less Verrio, with paint brush in hand, shortly before he went completely blind in 1704.
The artist is shown with the third son of the playwright and theatre manager Thomas Killigrew (1612-1683) and his second wife Charlotte (1629-1715). Robert Killigrew was killed at the Battle of Almanza, Spain, on 14 April 1707, aged 47.

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