This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in
Lot 37TP
Sir Thomas Lawrence P.R.A.(Bristol 1769-1830 London)Portrait of George Griffin Stonestreet, three-quarter-length, seated, in a brown coat and white cravat, a red brocade curtain behind
4 December 2024, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £9,600 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Old Master Paintings specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
Poppy Harvey-Jones
Head of Sale
Lisa Greaves
Head of Department
Sir Thomas Lawrence P.R.A. (Bristol 1769-1830 London)
Portrait of George Griffin Stonestreet, three-quarter-length, seated, in a brown coat and white cravat, a red brocade curtain behind
oil on canvas
128.6 x 102.9cm (50 5/8 x 40 1/2in).
oil on canvas
128.6 x 102.9cm (50 5/8 x 40 1/2in).
Footnotes
Provenance
Commissioned by The Phoenix Assurance Company, London
Sale, Christie's, London, 8 June 2006, lot 47, where purchased by the present owner
Literature
Lord R. Sutherland Gower, Sir Thomas Lawrence, London, 1900, p.161
Sir W. Armstrong, Lawrence, London, 1913, p.165
K.J. Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence, London, 1954, p.59
K.J. Garlick, A Catalogue of the paintings, drawings and pastels of Sir Thomas Lawrence, London, 1964, p.181
M. Levey, Sir Thomas Lawrence 1769-1830, exh. cat., London, 1979, p. 41, cat. no. 16, ill.
K.B. Croker, Things Phoenix, 1782-1982, London, 1982, p.18
C. Trebilcock, Phoenix Assurance, 1782-1870, Cambridge, 1985, p.364
K.J. Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence, London, 1989, p. 269, cat. no. 744, ill
Exhibited
London, Royal Academy, 1802, no.421
London, Royal Academy, The Royal Academy: First Hundred Years, 18 December 1951 - 9 March 1952, no.199
London, National Portrait Gallery, Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1979, no.16
The sitter was born George Griffin in circa 1744/5, and adopted his mother's maiden name of Stonestreet in 1794. He was the first secretary and director of the Phoenix Fire Office and Pelican Life Insurance. Minutes from the Phoenix Directors' Board meeting on 18 December 1799 expressed gratitude to Stonestreet for his services, recording the wish that he sit for a portrait and that it be 'placed in a conspicuous part of the Premises'. Thomas Lawrence received the commission, and the work was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1802, the year Stonestreet died.