Elizabethan portrait in Sloane Street sale
The descendants of a prominent Elizabethan have consigned his 1576 portrait to an upcoming auction alongside a wider collection.
The Fane family first came to prominence during the reign of Elizabeth I, although an earlier scion, Ivon Vane, had served the Black Prince and was one of three captains who captured King John II of France at the battle of Poitiers 1356.
Now the family have consigned a selection of artworks from their home at 22 Cheyne Row in London for sale at Sloane Street Auctions’ Spring Fine Art Auction on March 28.
Prominent among them is the 1576 portrait of Sir Thomas Fane (1536-89), a prominent Elizabethan figure who married into the Neville family (Earls of Westmorland), one of the Leading Northern families of the time.
From the Circle of the Antwerp artist John De Critz (1555-1641), the 21 x 16½in oil on panel depicts Sir Thomas three years after he was knighted for services to the crown. He had survived a death sentence for treason following his involvement in Wyatt’s Rebellion against the Catholic monarch Mary I in 1554, after the Queen pardoned him in return for an Oath of Loyalty. He was later High Sheriff of Kent.
The estimate for the portrait is £20,000-30,000.
Also among the 110 or more lots of paintings, sculpture, furniture and effects consigned by the Fane family here is a 2¾ x 2¼in miniature portrait of another relative, Sarah Anne, Countess of Westmorland (d.1793) by the Irish artist Charles Robertson (1760-1821). It is thought to date from the Earl’s time as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1790-95) and comes with an estimate of £800-1,200.
Elsewhere, a 7 x 6in oil on panel portrait of Louise of Lorraine, Queen of France c.1570-80, is expected to fetch £2,000-4,000.
The auction features around £760,000 worth of fine art.
“We have an extraordinarily eclectic catalogue of first class works by some of the best known artists names of the past two centuries, from the French Impressionist Henry Moret and the 19th-century Romantic painter of fabulous scenes, John Martin, to several works by Sir Alfred Munnings, a very unusual and attractive piece by Scottish Colourist George Leslie Hunter, and two of the nude studio portraits from the Light and Dark series by the wonderful Ken Howard,” said Sloane Street Auctions’ owner Daniel Hunt.
“These sort of works would have been a natural fit for Christie’s South Kensington in its day, but now that has gone, we find that consignors tend to come to us, so we are delighted to play our part in keeping this tradition of higher end works coming to London beyond the confines of Bond Street and St James. It is also a happy coincidence that our auctioneer, Hugh Edmeades, was Christie’s South Kensington’s former chairman.”