About this lot
Description
Portrait of John Willoughby Cole (1768–1840) 2nd Earl of Enniskillen, bust-length, wearing the insignia of the Order of Saint Patrick
oil on canvas
75 x 60.5cm
Provenance:
Painted for the sitter’s sister, Lady Henrietta Frances Cole (1784-1848) who married Thomas Philip de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey of Wrest (1781-1859) in 1805,
Thence by descent at Wrest Park to his great-granddaughter Nan Ino Herbert, Baroness Lucas of Crudwell (1880-1958)
Her Sale, Christie’s, Wrest Park Sale, 16th November 1917,
Sold to Lady Charlotte Smith-Barry (née Cole, d.1933) the sitter's granddaughter,
By whom given in 1922 to her nephew Lowry Arthur Casamaijor Cole (1878-1955)
Thence by descent to his son Reverend Arthur Lowry Frederick Cole (b.1911),
By whom bequeathed to the present owner.
Footnote:
The present lot is by family tradition a copy Robinson made for the sitter's sister, Lady Henrietta Frances Cole (1784-1848) from the prime version that hangs still at Florence Court, Enniskillen, County Fermanagh.
Condition report:
107 x 92cm (framed)
Oil on canvas which is unlined and has a stamp for canvas tax purposes on the reverse. The canvas tension is slightly slack and there are undulations at the upper corners. It appears as though the painting was once framed with a slip with spandrel corners at the top. There are deformations in the paint layers following this shape at the top corners which have been filled and retouched. There is another area of retouching at the lower left corner. There is damage above the sitter’s head which has caused deformation to the canvas and losses to the paint layer. In the background there is fine scale flaking and loss. The varnish has degraded and become yellow with age and no longer adequately saturates the darker paint layers below.
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