Lot 54
Thomas Gainsborough(Sudbury 1727-1788 London)Portrait of Peter Godfrey (c.1769-1837), half-length, in a blue coat
3 December 2025, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£40,000 - £60,000
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Thomas Gainsborough (Sudbury 1727-1788 London)
Portrait of Peter Godfrey (c.1769-1837), half-length, in a blue coat
oil on canvas
73.7 x 61cm (29 x 24in).
oil on canvas
73.7 x 61cm (29 x 24in).
Footnotes
Provenance
H.W. Green, from whom acquired by
with Agnews, London, 6 February 1914, where acquired by
Harold Bendixson (1859-1929), Devonshire, 21 July 1916
Collection of Emil Gluckstadt (1875-1923), Copenhagen
His posthumous sale, Winkel and Magnussen, Copenhagen, 2-7 June 1924, lot 732, where purchased by
J. Dreyer, Copenhagen (13,101 DKr)
Gorm Rasmussen, Copenhagen
With Jacques Seligman & Co, New York, by January 1937
With Newhouse Galleries, New York, 1952
Collection of George L. Bagby (1880-1962), Faywood, Kentucky
His estate sale, Early Auction Co., Lexington, 18-20 June 1969, where purchased by
William A. Rudd Snr (d.1999), Cincinnati, and thence by descent until offered
Sale, Sotheby's, London, 10 December 2009, lot 245, where purchased by the present owners
Literature
B. Gamlin, Old Hall, East Bergholt: The Story of a Suffolk Manor, Hadleigh, Suffolk, 1995, p. 28
H. Belsey, Thomas Gainsborough: The Portraits, Fancy Pictures and Copies after Old Masters, London and New Haven, 2019, pp. 405-6, cat. no. 407
Peter Godfrey was the eldest son of William Godfrey and Elizabeth Catlet. He married Arabella, third daughter of Sir Joshua Rowley in 1790, with whom he had 6 children, and remarried after her death in 1805 to Catherine, daughter of Abel Chapman of Woodford, Essex.
Godfrey was friends with John Constable, who on several occasions depicted Old Hall, East Bergholt, where Godfrey rented and then owned from 1806. Godfrey is mentioned in Constable's letters, and Constable painted a view of the Stour valley for their daughter, Philadelphia.