Old Master & 19th Century Paintings
Old Master & 19th Century Paintings
Property from the Estate of the late Hon. Thomas Noel
English School, 18th century
Still life of a white woodcock
No reserve
Lot Closed
April 5, 12:26 PM GMT
Estimate
2,500 - 3,500 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from the Estate of The Late Hon. Thomas Noel
English School, 18th century
Still life of a white woodcock
indistinctly signed upper right: Geo Roth[?] p
inscribed upper right: This most extraordinary woodcock was / shot at Exton in Rutland by one of the / Earl of Gainsboroughs servants on the 7th / of November Anno Dom. 1748
oil on canvas
unframed: 31.7 x 40.6 cm.; 12½ x 16 in.
framed: 38.2 x 46.7 cm.; 15 x 18⅜ in.
Anonymous sale, London, Bonhams Knightsbridge, 29 March 1990, lot 34.
The inscription on this painting suggests that this woodcock was shot in 1748 by a servant of Baptist Noel, 4th Earl of Gainsborough (1708–1751). The house in the distance might be based on a prospect of Exton Hall, Rutland, the ancestral home of the Gainsboroughs. In 1728 the 4th Earl had married the daughter of his gamekeeper, Elizabeth Chapman (1707–1771), a match that would have been atypical for an aristocrat of the eighteenth century. Although these details may be unconnected, it is possible that the commissioning of this painting was in someway related to the Earl's gamekeeper in-laws.
For a portrait of Baptist Noel, 4th Earl of Gainsborough (1708–1751), as a boy see lot 85.