Double portrait of Mrs Alexander Allan, three-quarter-length, seated in a crimson velvet dress with white ruff and cuffs and a crimson and white turban, with her granddaughter, Matilda, in a white lace dress holding a leather bound book

Details

Sir Henry Raeburn, R.A. (Edinburgh 1756-1823)
Double portrait of Mrs Alexander Allan, three-quarter-length, seated in a crimson velvet dress with white ruff and cuffs and a crimson and white turban, with her granddaughter, Matilda, in a white lace dress holding a leather bound book
oil on canvas
50 x 39½ in. (127 x 100.4 cm.)

Provenance

by descent in the sitters' family to Major General Allan.
with Gallerie Heinemann, Munich.
with Gallery Heim, Paris, 1957.
Sotheby's, London, 18 November 1959, lot 42 (250 gns. to Young).
Teitelbaum family, by who given to the Los Angeles County Museum, 1960. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 17 January 1986, lot 14.

Literature

W.R. Andrew, M.A., Life of Sir Henry Raeburn, London, 1886 p. 101, no. 8.
Sir W. Armstrong, Sir Henry Raeburn, R.A., London and New York, 1901 p. 95.
E. Pinnington, Sir Henry Raeburn R.A., London, 1904, p. 218.
J. Greig, Sir Henry Raeburn R.A., His Life and Works, With a Catalogue of His Pictures, London, 1911, p. 37.
W. Roberts, Alexander Allan, by Sir Henry Raeburn, RA, privately printed by the author, 1921.
The Burlington Magazine, vol. 99, November 1952, XVII, illustrated.
D. Mackie, Raeburn Complete Catalogue, Life and Art, unpublished PHD thesis, Edinburgh and Yale, 1994, 6 vols, II, no. 17.

Exhibited

Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy, 1863, no. 181.
Manchester, Raeburn Exhibition, 1876, no. 7 (lent by Lieut.-Col. William Allan).

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.

Lot Essay

The portrait is traditionally identified as of Ann Allan (nee Losh) with her daughter Matilda (c. 1808-1872). Ann Allan (1758-1846) is said to have been from Cumberland and was the wife of William Allan, a banker, of Hillside, Edinburgh. However, Mackie (op.cit.), who dates the portrait to circa 1815-18, points out that Ann Allan was about sixty at the time and that Matilda is therefore more likely to be her granddaughter rather than her daughter. The portrait was originally of larger format (81 x 57 1/2 ins.) before it was with Gallerie Heim. Alexander Allan also sat to Raeburn (Private collection, USA; Mackie, op.cit., no. 16.).

We are grateful to David Mackie of Cambridge University for his assistance with this catalogue entry.

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