About this lot

Description

Portrait of Barbara Villiers (1640-1709), Duchess of Cleveland, three-quarter length, seated, holding flowers oil on canvas, in a carved gilt frame 125 x 107 cm

Footnote: Provenance: The Royal Cambridge Hotel, Cambridge The overall format of the composition follows that by Sir Peter Lely from the mid 1670s of which numerous versions exist, that at Goodwood House, Sussex, being the best known. The Goodwood picture, however, is in reverse of the present painting and whilst a mezzotint after Lely's original, published after 1680s includes the fountain and sculpted figures in the Goodwood painting, another mezzotint published in the late 1670s by Richard Tompson not only excludes those figures, but is in the same direction as the present painting, which must therefore derive from Tompson's mezzotint.

Condition report: Late 17th or early 18th Century copy Oil on canvas which has been lined. The canvas tension is slightly slack but the picture is generally in plane. The paint layer has a network of age cracks and a slightly uneven texture but is stable overall. There is a small dent in the canvas near the sitter's right knee. There are numerous scattered retouchings across the surface which are well matched to the original. The varnish is very glossy clear and even.

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