Sir Herbert James Gunn, R.A. (1893-1964)
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's… Read more
Sir Herbert James Gunn, R.A. (1893-1964)

Portrait of Gwen and Diana Gunn, the artist's first wife and daughter

Details
Sir Herbert James Gunn, R.A. (1893-1964)
Portrait of Gwen and Diana Gunn, the artist's first wife and daughter
signed 'James Gunn' (lower left)
oil on canvas
59 ½ x 40 in. (151.1 x 101.6 cm.)
Provenance
Anonymous sale; Bonhams, New York, 8 November 2017, lot 97, as A portrait of a mother and her daughter.
Special notice
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

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Lot Essay


In this tender portrait of his first wife and their eldest daughter, Gunn has elevated an intimate family moment to the status of 'Grand Manner' portraiture. Here, Diana shyly glances out at the viewer, clutching her mother's dress for comfort whilst Gwen's tender gaze offers her that protection.
Gunn married Gwendoline Hillman, the widow of Captain Guy Thorne on 9 January 1919, and their first child was born two years later. The couple had three daughters, Diana, Elizabeth and Pauline who, along with their mother, often modelled for Gunn's paintings in the early 1920s. Sadly, the marriage was to prove unhappy and in 1927 the couple divorced. After their mother's remarriage to Sir Arthur Whinney the girls saw very little of their father until they reached adulthood, something which affected Gunn very deeply, and indeed it was many years before the children from his second marriage to Pauline Miller discovered the existence of these half-sisters.
We are grateful to the artist's daughter, Chloe Gunn Blackburn, for her assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.

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