Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries
Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries
Property of the Harford family
Samuel Cooper
Portrait of Mrs John Hoskins (d. before 1653)
Auction Closed
July 5, 10:16 AM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property of the Harford family
Samuel Cooper
London 1609 - 1672
Portrait of Mrs John Hoskins (d. before 1653)
Black chalk on paper prepared with a pearl-white ground, blue border;
signed with the artist's monogram lower right: SC, inscribed in another hand lower left: SC, further inscribed verso: Mrs Hoskins Pr: SC
172 by 132 mm
Probably Mrs Samuel Cooper (1623-1693), the artist’s wife,
probably Mrs Richard Gibson, née Anne Shepherd (d. 1707), the artist's wife,
probably Susannah-Penelope Rosse (d. 1700), the artist's daughter,
probably Michael Rosse (d. circa 1735), her husband,
probably his sale, London, Cecil Street, April-May 1723, unknown lot number,
possibly (according to family tradition) Christopher Tower of Huntsmoor Park, Buckinghamshire (1657-1728),
possibly Christopher Tower (1692-1771),
possibly Christopher Tower (1747-1810),
possibly the Rev. William Tower of Weald Hall, Essex (1789-1847),
Mrs William Henry Harford, née Ellen Tower (1832-1907),
Hugh Wyndham Luttrell Harford (1862-1920),
Arthur Hugh Harford (1905-1985),
by descent to the present owner
We are very grateful to Neil Jeffares for his help in clarifying the early provenance of this collection. Please see his article ‘William Towers (-1678) art dealer and collector’
Neil Jeffares | Fairness, candour & curiosity – from finance to art history (wordpress.com)
D. Foskett, Samuel Cooper and his contemporaries, London 1974, p. 69, no. 136;
D. Foskett, Collection Miniatures, Woodbridge 1979, p. 104;
M. Edmond, ‘Limners and Picturemakers,' Walpole Society, vol. XLVII, 1980, pp. 110 & 114;
L. Stainton and C. White, Drawing in England from Hilliard to Hogarth, exh. cat. London, British Museum, London 1987, pp. 33, 111 & 112, no. 75;
E. Rutherford et al, Warts and All, The Portrait Miniatures of Samuel Cooper, London 2013, pp. 115 & 116
London, Tate Gallery, The Age of Charles I: Painting in England 1620-1649, 1972, no. 228;
London, National Portrait Gallery; Samuel Cooper and his Contemporaries, 1974, no. 136;
London, British Museum & New Haven, Yale Center for British Art, Drawing in England from Hilliard to Hogarth, 1987, no. 75
With remarkable clarity of vision Cooper has portrayed his aunt. The honesty of the rendering is perhaps the fruit of his affection for the woman who had been responsible for his upbringing.
The inscription on the reverse indicates that she was the first wife of Cooper’s uncle John Hoskins Senior (circa 1590-1665). Her biographical details are scant, other than she was the mother of John Hoskins Junior (see lot 8) and that she died before 1653, the year that her husband is most likely to have married for a second time.1 The style of her chapron hat suggests that this work was drawn in the later 1640s.
The portrait is executed on laid paper which has been prepared with a pearl-white ground and bordered with a blue band. The drawing is evidence of Edward Norgate’s observation that Cooper’s ‘white and black chalks upon a coloured paper are for ‘likeness, neatnes [sic], and roundes [sic], abastanza da fare stupire e marvigliara ogni acutissimo ingegno’ (enough to amaze and marvel even the keenest wit). It is remarkable that what merited identification in the seventeenth century remains valid today.
1. R. Stephens, 'The Hoskins family of limners', The British Art Journal, vol. 19, 2018, pp. 78-78
2. E. Norgate, Miniatura or the Art of Limning, New Haven 1997, ed J.M. Muller and J. Murrell, pp. 101-2, 194-5, 256
For further information on the work please refer to lot 8.