Studio of Sir Godfrey Kneller

Bernard Gear;

Possibly sold London, Sotheby's, 23 January 1963, lot 224 (as English School, 18th century, Portrait of Samuel Richardson);

S.W. Smithers, O.B.E., Lowlands Farm, Blackboys, Uckfield, East Sussex; (this and the above according to documentation supplied by the client)

From whom acquired by the father of the present owner. 

This work is a copy after a lost portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller of the celebrated French painter Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer known from an engraving by George White, dated 1715.¹ A drawing for the lost painting, dated circa 1697–99, is in the Courtauld Institute of Art, London.²

¹ Inv. no. NPG D5277; mezzotint; 28.6 x 20.4 cm.; https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw39637/Jean-Baptiste-Monnoyer

² Inv. no. D.1952.RW.1398; black and white chalks on brown paper; 32.2 x 23 cm.; http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/gallery/833b90b2.html