Portrait of Viscountess Blundell, née Mary Chetwynd (1680-1756), half-length, in a blue dress

Details

ATTRIBUTED TO CHARLES JERVAS (DUBLIN C. 1675-1739 LONDON)
Portrait of Viscountess Blundell, née Mary Chetwynd (1680-1756), half-length, in a blue dress
oil on canvas
30 ¼ x 25 ¼ in. (77 x 64 cm.)
with identifying inscription 'Viscountess Blundell' (lower right) and inscribed 'Dahl / Pinxit.' (reverse, on the relining canvas)
in a frame of foliate carved and pierced giltwood, applied to an ebonised subframe

Please note that 100% of the hammer proceeds from this auction will be paid to the Sandys Trust, registered charity number: 1168357, with the exception of limited deductions towards sale costs across the auction which cannot be accurately calculated at this time, capped at a total of £10,000.

Provenance

(Presumably) by descent to the sitter's daughter,
Chetwynd Trumbull, née Blundell (1715-1766), and by descent to her daughter,
Mary Sandys, née Trumbull (1741-1769), and by descent to her daughter,
Mary, Marchioness of Downshire and 1st Baroness Sandys (1764-1836), and by descent to her second son,
Lieutenant-General Arthur Hill, 2nd Baron Sandys (1792-1860), and by inheritance to his younger brother,
Arthur Marcus Sandys, 3rd Baron Sandys (1798-1863), and thence by descent to,
Richard Hill, 7th Baron Sandys (1931-2013), at Ombersley Court, Worcestershire.

Literature

J. Grego, Inventory of Pictures: Portraits, Paintings, etc., Ombersley MS., 1905, where listed in the Library.
ONM / 1 / 2 / 7, journal entry for a visit to Ombersley Court, 25 August 1950, Oliver Millar Archive, Paul Mellon Centre, London, p. 27.
Ombersley Court Inventory, June 1963, annotated Ombersley MS., where listed in the Store Rooms.
Ombersley Court Catalogue of Pictures, undated, Ombersley MS., p. 18, where listed in the Library.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Adrian Hume-Sayer Director, Specialist

Lot Essay

The present lot is presumably a portrait of Mary Chetwynd, Viscountess Blundell (see lot 128), great-grandmother of Mary, Marchioness of Downshire. It is interesting to note that the painting bears a close resemblance to a portrait of Lady Elizabeth Egerton, née Churchill, Countess of Bridgewater (1687-1714), by Charles Jervas, sold at Christie's, London, 19 November 1982, lot 82. Despite the inscription on the reverse attributing the painting to Michael Dahl (1656/9-1743), it appears to be closer to the work of Jervas, and was described by Sir Oliver Millar as a 'Jervas type' of c.1720 (op. cit., p. 27).

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