John Downman, ARA (British, 1750-1824)
Mrs Smith (née Mills), profile to the left, wearing blue dress with frilled cuffs and collar dressed with ribbons at the corsage and waist, fichu, black ribbon collar, her powdered hair worn in a banging chignon, dressed with white handkerchief.
Coloured chalks on paper, original rectangular gilded wood frame with foliate borders, the reverse with label inscribed Miss Smith/ of Ledger Stiles in/ the county of Kent/ Village of Cooling/ by some called/ Cowling.
Oval, 210mm (8 1/4in) high
Provenance: E.M. Hodgkins; Christie's, 29 June 1917, lot 36
Literature: G.C. Williamson, John Downman, His Life and Works, 1907, ill.opp.p.xvi
Coloured chalks on paper, original rectangular gilded wood frame with foliate borders, the reverse with label inscribed Miss Smith/ of Ledger Stiles in/ the county of Kent/ Village of Cooling/ by some called/ Cowling.
Oval, 210mm (8 1/4in) high
Provenance: E.M. Hodgkins; Christie's, 29 June 1917, lot 36
Literature: G.C. Williamson, John Downman, His Life and Works, 1907, ill.opp.p.xvi
Sold for
£1,140
inc. premium
Footnotes
- The present lot is probably the portrait listed in Williamson's book (ibid.) on p.lxii, no.296 as having been drawn in 1780. According to this reference, Miss Mills was the daughter of Jeremiah Mills, Dean of Exeter.
Another larger version of the present lot was previously in a private collection in Belgium.
Category: Fine Art / Portrait Miniatures
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