Boys fishing

Details

William Mulready, R.A. (1786-1863)
Boys fishing
signed with initials (lower centre, on the boat)
oil on canvas
30 5/8 x 40 7/8 in. (78 x 104 cm.)

Provenance

Sir J.E. Swinburne, and by descent to
Miss Julia Swinburne, by 1882.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 20 June 1893, lot 93 (250 gns to Gooden).
with Thos. Agnew & Son, London, until 1900 when sold to
Sir Charles Tennant.
Mrs Lubbock.
with Thos. Agnew & Son, London.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 11 February 1921, lot 151 (21 gns to Sampson).
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, Belgravia, 29 June 1976, lot 62.
Mrs. George Pope.
with Spink, London, until June 1983, when purchased by the present owner.

Literature

W. Mulready, Account Book, 1812, 1813, and 1814.
Athenaeum, 10 June 1848, p. 584.
F.G. Stephens, List, London, 1890, pp. 60, 64, 91.
A. Rorimer, Drawings by William Mulready, London, 1972, p. 50.
K.M. Heleniak, William Mulready, New Haven and London, 1980, pp. 70-2, 162, 197, no. 81, pl. 69.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, 1814, no. 75.
London, Society of Arts, A Catalogue of the Pictures, Drawings, sketches, etc. of William Mulready, R.A., 1848, no. XIV.
London, South Kensington Museum, Science and Art Department, A Catalogue of the Pictures, Drawings, sketches, etc. of the late William Mulready, 1864, no. 42.
London, Royal Academy, 1882, no. 10.

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Lot Essay

This painting by Mulready has enjoyed a colourful provenance. It was painted for Sir John Swinburne, 6th Bt. (1762-1860) of Capheaton Hall, near Wallington, Northumberland, a keen patron of the artist, with whom he shared an interest in boxing. Mulready painted portraits of a number of Swinburne’s family and taught his children to paint. Swinburne was MP for Launceston, a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Society of Antiquaries.

A subsequent owner of the painting was Sir Charles Tennant, 1st Bt. (1823-1906), a Scottish businessman who became President of the United Alkali Company and Chairman of the Union Bank of Scotland. He also sat as MP for Glasgow (from 1879 to 1880) and for Peebles and Selkirk (from 1880 to 1886). His daughter Margot was the second wife of Prime Minister Herbert Asquith and a prominent member of the intellectual circle known as ‘The Souls’.

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