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Lot 11

Thomas Francis Dicksee
(British, 1819-1895)
Viola in Twelfth Night

30 – 31 March 2022, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £22,750 inc. premium

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Thomas Francis Dicksee (British, 1819-1895)

Viola in Twelfth Night
signed with monogram and dated '1866' (centre right), signed and inscribed (on the remnants of a label attached to the stretcher)
oil on canvas
54 x 36.4cm (21 1/4 x 14 1/4in).

Footnotes

The partially legible inscription reads:

"I'll do my best.
To woo your lady: yet
aside, a barful strife.
Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife."
Twelfth Night, Act I, Scene I
T.F. Dicksee

The present work depicts Viola, the main protagonist of Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night. In this work, the female sitter is dressed in fine, decorative men's clothing as she has assumed her role as Cesario, a page working in the service of the Duke of Orsino.

Dicksee exhibited seven portraits of Shakespearean heroines at the Royal Academy throughout his career. Often using the same models, a painting of Beatrice from Shakespeare's play Much Ado About Nothing, almost certainly shows the same sitter (see Christie's, London, 14 November 2013, lot 107).

Additional information

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