John James Masquerier, R.A.

Estimate

6,000 - 8,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

John James Masquerier, R.A.
The Minstrel singing his lay to the Duchess of Buccleugh; from Walter Scott's The Lay of the Last Minstrel, 1805
oil on canvas, held in its original gilt plaster frame

Exhibited

London, British Institution, 1809, no. 97.

Catalogue Note

One of Walter Scott's earliest epic poems, The Lay of the Last Minstrel was a publishing phenomenon and launched Scott to instant fame. It tells of a sixteenth-century Border feud, as recounted over a century and a half later, by an aging minstrel to Ann, Duchess of Buccleuch, in gratitute for the hospitality she showed him at Newark Castle.