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Lot 28

William Owen
(Ludlow 1769-1825 London)
Portrait of Emily St Clare: Expectation

Old Master Paintings

6 December 2017, 15:30 GMT

London, New Bond Street

Sold for £11,250 inc. premium

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Poppy Harvey-Jones

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Tel: +44 20 7468 8308

Poppy.Harvey-Jones@bonhams.com

William Owen (Ludlow 1769-1825 London)

Portrait of Emily St Clare: Expectation
oil on canvas
76.4 x 64cm (30 1/16 x 25 3/16in).

Footnotes

Provenance
Presumably commissioned by John Leicester, 1st Baron de Tabley, before 1821, by whose heirs sold
Christie's London, 7 July 1827, lot 14 (bt. £36.15 by Michael Peacock)
Sale Edward Foster, London, 19 March 1833, lot 94 (bt. £5.5 by Col. Ainsley)
Collection of Miss Eleanor Keen (d. 1940), and thence by descent to the present owner

Literature
J. Young Catalogue of Pictures by British Artists in the Possession of Sir John Fleming Leicester, 1821, no. 54

Engraved
Charles Turner

Described in his obituary as 'the greatest patron of the national school of painting that our island ever possessed' (Gentleman's Magazine, vol. 97, pt. 2, p. 273), John Fleming Leicester, first Baron de Tabley (1762–1827), was the eldest surviving son of Sir Peter Leicester, fourth baronet (1732–1770), and his wife, Catherine (d. 1786). Always a keen promoter of the English school of painting, he converted three rooms at Tabley House, Cheshire, into a gallery and from April 1818 onwards, he opened the doors of his London home at 24 Hill Street in Mayfair allowing the public to visit his collection.

From about 1800, Lord Leicester commissioned William Owen, amongst others, to paint numerous fancy pictures of his mistress Emily St. Clare, including the present work. She was later pensioned off when he married Georgiana Maria Cottin, a granddaughter of the architect Sir William Chambers. Owen went on to paint Lady Leicester several times and various portraits of her still hang at Tabley House, along with Sir Thomas Lawrence's depiction of her as Hope.

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