Christopher Tombs Ltd

Description

We are proud to offer for Sale this Lost Painting by Sir William Beechey.
RA (BURFORD 1753 – 1839 LONDON)
Portrait of Godfrey Thornton (1737– 1805) 1797
Initialled,inscribed and dated l.r. WB pinxt/1797/ GThornton/Esq.
Oil on canvas
30 x 25 inches 76.2 x 63.5 cm
Provenance
By descent from the sitter’s wife Jane Godin Mrs Thornton later Mrs Dickens (1743 –1811)
Sotheby’s, London,10th July 1991, lot 127.
Sir William Beechey’s portrait of Godfrey Thornton, Governor of the Bank of England and patron of the architect Sir John Soane, is known from four versions and one modern copy (see appendix). Two of these are recorded in the possession of Thornton’s descendants and appear from photographs to be second versions or good studio copies. Our portrait, which belonged to Jane Godin Thornton’s wife, is clearly the prime version painted from a life sitting. It is initialled and dated by Beechey and inscribed by him with the identity of the sitter.
This portrait was unrecorded until it was sold by a descendant at Sotheby’s in 1991. The signature and inscription were visible but obscured by surface dirt and old varnish and the sitter’s name was misread as ‘R Thornton’. Remarkably the artist and sitter were forgotten within thirty years and when the painting appeared on the art market in 2022 it was catalogued as an unattributed Nineteenth Century ‘portrait of a gentleman’. Conservation has revealed the artist’s inscription and shows the portrait to be a painting of exceptional quality, typical of Beechey’s technique as his star was rising in the 1790s.
Comparing our portrait with the other versions gives a good illustration of the difference between an original painted from life and an artist’s second version or a studio copy. The prime version is a record of light moving across a breathing three-dimensional form. The painter’s marks are free and lively, particularly in the mobile expression of the face where Beechey captures a moment in the conversation between artist and sitter. Beechey shows the translucence of Thornton’s neck ruffles by painting them hardly at all. They are implied by a thin scumble in white over the ground. The shape of the cravat at the left is defined by a rapid drawing in dark paint, and on the right the edges are picked out by few white impasto highlights. The illusion of translucence succeeds because Beechey was painting exactly what he saw, that is to say,not the object itself but the light on the object. Even the best copy cannot achieve this effect and appears flat by comparison.
This portrait was painted during a transformative period in Beechey’s career. In ten years he had risen from relative obscurity as a painter of small-scale portraits in Norwich in the 1780s to the position of Portrait Painter to Queen Charlotte in 1793. He was made an Associate of the Royal Academy in the same year and predicted soon to become a Royal Academician with the blessing of King George III.
Full research documentation available upon request.
Delivery within the Uk is included in the asking price.
Shipping is also a pleasure so please do inquire.
We welcome all inquires on this item or any other item that we have.
Thanks for looking Chris.
07778655965
Internal Ref: WB2023