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The Twinight Collection
Lot 72*
Henry Pierce Bone(British, 1779-1855)The English dramatist and poet Thomas Otway (1652-1685), with long curling brown hair, wearing a draped brown cloak with white shirt and upturned collar
4 July 2024, 12:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £704 inc. premium
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Henry Pierce Bone (British, 1779-1855)
The English dramatist and poet Thomas Otway (1652-1685), with long curling brown hair, wearing a draped brown cloak with white shirt and upturned collar.
Enamel on copper, signed, dated and inscribed on the counter-enamel, Otway/ London June 1841 Painted by/ Henry Pierce Bone Enamel Painter to Her/ Majesty & H.R.H. Prince Albert the/ Queen Dowager & H.R.H. the Duchess/ of Kent. From the Original by Mary/ Beale. In the Collection of Earl/ Spencer Althorp, rectangular gilt-wood frame.
Oval, 146mm (5 3/4in) high
Provenance:
The Twinight Collection
Enamel on copper, signed, dated and inscribed on the counter-enamel, Otway/ London June 1841 Painted by/ Henry Pierce Bone Enamel Painter to Her/ Majesty & H.R.H. Prince Albert the/ Queen Dowager & H.R.H. the Duchess/ of Kent. From the Original by Mary/ Beale. In the Collection of Earl/ Spencer Althorp, rectangular gilt-wood frame.
Oval, 146mm (5 3/4in) high
Provenance:
The Twinight Collection
Footnotes
Thomas Otway wished to become an actor but his stage fright was so severe that he performed badly and decided to never return to the stage. He realised that writing might be a better fit than acting, and he found a muse in the actress Elizabeth Barry. His infatuation with Barry was increasingly one-sided. She flirted with him but was already in a relationship with the Earl of Rochester. This, combined with his poor finances, encouraged Otway to join the army, where he served in the Netherlands. When his regiment was disbanded, Otway had to make his own way back to London, arriving almost penniless in 1679. He continued writing, and produced some of his most famous works in the last few years of his life. The possibly apocryphal story of his death, as told in Lives of the Poets, is that Otway choked on a piece of bread after begging a guinea from a passer-by who recognised him. He was just 33 at the time of his death.
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