Attributed to Michael Dahl (Stockholm 1656-1743 London)
Attributed to Michael Dahl (Stockholm 1656-1743 London)

Portrait of Edward Roper, Master of the Charlton Hunt, three-quarter-length, in a buff coat, holding a whip, with a hound at his side and hounds pursuing a fox beyond

Details
Attributed to Michael Dahl (Stockholm 1656-1743 London)
Portrait of Edward Roper, Master of the Charlton Hunt, three-quarter-length, in a buff coat, holding a whip, with a hound at his side and hounds pursuing a fox beyond
with identifying inscription 'Mr. EDWARD ROPER by Sir. G. KNELLER.' (upper right)
oil on canvas
50 x 40 in. (127 x 101.6 cm.)
in a late 17th century carved and gilded 'panelled' frame
Provenance
Sir Henry Edward Dering, 10th Bt. (1866-1931), of Surrenden Dering, Pluckley, Kent; Knight, Frank & Rutley, house sale, 8-11 October 1928, lot 276, as 'Sir Godfrey Kneller' when purchased by the following
The Hon. Clive Pearson of Parham Park, by whom given in 1928 to Harold Pearson, 2nd Viscount Cowdray.
Literature
M.W. Brockwell, 'Frampton or Roper? A problem in sporting portraits', Country Life, LXXII, 12 November 1932, p. 540.
C. Anson, A Catalogue of Pictures and Drawings in the Collection of The Viscount Cowdray, London, 1971, p. 27, no. 80, plate 30, as 'Sir Godfrey Kneller' (in the East Gallery).

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Lot Essay

Established in 1670, the Charlton Hunt is the earliest documented pack of hounds to be entered to fox alone. During the reign of Charles II almost every noble family had a representative at Charlton, including almost half of the Knights of the Garter. Edward Roper was originally Master of the Charlton Hunt under the Duke of Monmouth and Lord Grey, but with the fall of Monmouth, Roper fled to France to hunt at Chantilly. Roper returned to Sussex on the accession of William III. On Roper's death in a hunting field in 1715, aged eighty-four, the Duke of Bolton took the Mastership, followed by the Duke of Richmond. The Charlton Hunt declined after the latter's death in 1750.
A later portrait of Edward Roper, at one point wrongly identified as Tregonwell Frampton, attributed to Jonathan Richardson, is in the Jockey Club.
Surrenden Dering was rebuilt by Sir Edward Dering, 1st Bt. (b. 1598) and was sacked on four occasions by the Roundhead troops during the Civil War. Sir Edward Dering, 2nd Bt. (1625-1684) was one of the Commissioners of the Treasury under Charles II. The house descended to Sir Henry Edward Dering, 10th Bt., who served in the South African War and in France during World War I. The Clive Pearsons acquired a large group of portraits at the sale for Parham.

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