Portrait of Queen Anne of Denmark crowns sale
A portrait of Queen Anne of Denmark – wife of James I and mother of Charles I – leads an exceptional catalogue of paintings of women in Sloane Street Auctions on July 3.
The sale also highlights the work of women artists going back to the 16th century, as well as offering a painting by the outstanding French Baroque painter Nicolas Poussin.
Anne of Denmark (1574-1619), who was Queen of Scotland as well as of England, became a major patron of the arts and established her own personal court as a leading figure of the Jacobean age.
The portrait at Sloane Street Auctions is by Paul Van Somer (1577-1621), a Flemish artist who became a leading court painter to James I. Presented in an unusual early carved and gilded frame, it is similar to – though grander than – Somer’s portrait of Anne in the National Gallery.
Depicted in her finery and exceptionally bejewelled, this 36¼ x 30¾in framed oil on canvas view of the Queen in all her pomp is expected to fetch £20,000-30,000.
From the Circle of George Chinnery (1774-1852) comes an exotic Portrait of a Lady of exceptional wealth and courtly grandeur. Another oil on canvas, at 32½ x 26¾in, it shows a glamorous Eastern lady with multi-coloured feather headdress, dressed in silks and adorned with strings of pearls and emeralds. It carries hopes of £20,000-40,000.
Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614) was an Italian Mannerist painter famed for her portraits and considered to be the first female career artist in Western Europe. From the Circle of Lavinia Fontana comes a portrait of a courtly lady, possibly the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, Archduchess of Austria (1566-1633), who became Sovereign of the Netherlands during its golden age. As with the portrait of Queen Anne, the figure here is richly dressed and sumptuously bejewelled, as well as being a commanding presence. The 26¾ x 20¼in oil on canvas has an estimate of £8,000-12,000.
A Veneto Constantinople School Portrait of a Sultana, dating to c.1720, depicts an unidentified, ermine-clad woman of regal disposition painted in oil on canvas that should sell for £10,000-15,000, while Portrait of Sarah Siddons (1755-1831), a 35 x 30in oil on canvas portrait of the leading actress of the 18th-century by Thomas Beach (1738-1806) – a student of Sir Joshua Reynolds – is imbued with great depth of character with its black-clad figure against a dark background. The framed oil on canvas has a guide of £4,000-6,000.
One of the most captivating depictions of women in the sale comes from the Studio of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792). A Study for Three Ladies adorning a Term of Hymen, it constitutes a smaller study of the uppermost figure in Reynolds’ signature work in the Tate collection. The 41¾ x 36½in framed oil on canvas is pitched at £3,000-5,000.
Other notable depictions of women in the sale include Portrait of a lady with flowers and a feathered hat, a very striking 37 x 28in oil on canvas attributed to Edmond Brock (1882-1952), at £3,000-5,000; a framed, signed, titled and dated Portrait of Victoria Marjorie Harriet Paget, Marchioness of Anglesey (1883-1946) in pastel on paper measuring 24 x 21½in, from 1921, consigned by a descendant of the sitter, at £600-800; and Charles Conder’s (1868-1909) Portrait of Mrs Cecil Lawson, the artist’s sister-in-law, a charming fin-de-siècle framed charcoal on paper bust of a woman in a large hat. At 13 x 10½in, it is priced at £400-600.
The Marchioness of Anglesey, a writer and illustrator in her own right, is also remembered for commissioning the artist Rex Whistler to decorate her country house, Plas Newydd, with extensive trompe l’oeil murals.
Among the pictures of male figures in this sale is an English School c.1532. Portrait of King Henry VIII (1491-1547). Painted in oil on panel and inscribed in Latin top left: ANNO AETATIS SUE XLI (in the 41st year of his age), the 21 x 17½in picture is expected to make £8,000-12,000.
Theseus Rediscovering His Father’s Sword, a 40 x 49in oil on canvas by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) and Jean Lemaire (1598-1659), has an estimate of £20,000-40,000, while
A wonderful 18¾ x 24¼in oil on panel sketch of jockeys at the start of a race, signed A.J. Munnings and attributed to Sir Alfred Munnings (1878-1959), the leading member of the Newlyn School of Artists, should sell for £3,000-5,000.
“We are delighted with this catalogue, which shows clearly just how important a part women played in politics, history and the arts from early on,” said Sloane Street’s Daniel Hunt. “To cap it all we have the personal collection of Gaia Servadio (1938-2021), an Italian writer of distinction, who achieved fame with the outstanding success of her first book while still in her twenties.”