24th Nov, 2015 10:00
Decorative Works of Art
413
A PORTRAIT MINIATURE OF WELBY SHERMAN
A PORTRAIT MINIATURE OF WELBY SHERMAN, BY GEORGE RICHMOND (1809-1896), CIRCA 1827
in a landscape reading a book, with dark hair, red coat, buff waistcoat and white shirt, on ivory, the backboard with applied label inscribed: Welby Sherman / Painted Geo Richmond / Jany [two deleted words] : 1825 [altered to 27 by Thomas Knyvett Richmond] and TKR / 1877, gilt-metal frame
rectangular 12cm
Provenance: the artist; his son, Thomas Knyvett Richmond (1833-1901) by 1877
The engraver, Welby Sherman (Baptised April 1809), was the son of a London Leghorn hat merchant. He and George Richmond were members of a small coterie of friends and artists known as The Ancients. The group, including Samuel Palmer and Edward Calvert, had archaistic leanings and were inspired by the works of William Blake, at whose home they often met. The background in the present miniature was probably inspired by the landscape around Shoreham in Kent, where Palmer had a cottage and the group often gathered between about 1826 to 1834. According to Sherman's entry on the Tate website, he was perpetually short of money and swindled Palmer's brother William of £500. Certainly he appears on the Old Bailey lists for larceny in 1838, although the case does not seem to have gone to trial. He married 24 April 1848 at St Mary's Bermondsey to Gertrude Clarke (widow), at which time he was described as an engraver. As well as the Tate's holding, examples of his engravings are held by the Victoria & Albert and the New York Metropolitan.
From the late 1830s George Richmond specialised in drawing chalk portraits, the veracity and sensitivity of which led to great acclaim and success. At the outset of his career however, and almost certainly because he was the son of the miniaturist Thomas Richmond, he practised the art of his father. It is notable that even at this early stage he eschewed the carefully controlled brushwork of his parent in favour of a more lively technique that included multi-directional strokes, scuffing and scratching out. This freedom was most likely inspired by his friends among The Ancients. Whatever the stimulus, it resulted in a small but remarkable group of psychologically penetrating portraits, exemplified by this rediscovered miniature of his contemporary and fellow artist, Welby Sherman: a sympathetic rendering by one adolescent of another, the latter as yet perhaps untroubled by pecuniary problems. Other miniatures in this group include two in the National Portrait Gallery, London (a portrait of Samuel Palmer painted in 1829, NPG 2223 and a self-portrait painted in 1830, NPG 6586) and one in the Fitzwilliam, Cambridge (a portrait perhaps of Mr Ashby, 1830, PD.221-1994). The present work predates all these. A charming Richmond drawing of Sherman asleep in a chair, dated 1828, can be found at the Cleveland Museum of Art, No.1981.29 (see image).
Sold for £32,000
A PORTRAIT MINIATURE OF WELBY SHERMAN, BY GEORGE RICHMOND (1809-1896), CIRCA 1827
in a landscape reading a book, with dark hair, red coat, buff waistcoat and white shirt, on ivory, the backboard with applied label inscribed: Welby Sherman / Painted Geo Richmond / Jany [two deleted words] : 1825 [altered to 27 by Thomas Knyvett Richmond] and TKR / 1877, gilt-metal frame
rectangular 12cm
Provenance: the artist; his son, Thomas Knyvett Richmond (1833-1901) by 1877
The engraver, Welby Sherman (Baptised April 1809), was the son of a London Leghorn hat merchant. He and George Richmond were members of a small coterie of friends and artists known as The Ancients. The group, including Samuel Palmer and Edward Calvert, had archaistic leanings and were inspired by the works of William Blake, at whose home they often met. The background in the present miniature was probably inspired by the landscape around Shoreham in Kent, where Palmer had a cottage and the group often gathered between about 1826 to 1834. According to Sherman's entry on the Tate website, he was perpetually short of money and swindled Palmer's brother William of £500. Certainly he appears on the Old Bailey lists for larceny in 1838, although the case does not seem to have gone to trial. He married 24 April 1848 at St Mary's Bermondsey to Gertrude Clarke (widow), at which time he was described as an engraver. As well as the Tate's holding, examples of his engravings are held by the Victoria & Albert and the New York Metropolitan.
From the late 1830s George Richmond specialised in drawing chalk portraits, the veracity and sensitivity of which led to great acclaim and success. At the outset of his career however, and almost certainly because he was the son of the miniaturist Thomas Richmond, he practised the art of his father. It is notable that even at this early stage he eschewed the carefully controlled brushwork of his parent in favour of a more lively technique that included multi-directional strokes, scuffing and scratching out. This freedom was most likely inspired by his friends among The Ancients. Whatever the stimulus, it resulted in a small but remarkable group of psychologically penetrating portraits, exemplified by this rediscovered miniature of his contemporary and fellow artist, Welby Sherman: a sympathetic rendering by one adolescent of another, the latter as yet perhaps untroubled by pecuniary problems. Other miniatures in this group include two in the National Portrait Gallery, London (a portrait of Samuel Palmer painted in 1829, NPG 2223 and a self-portrait painted in 1830, NPG 6586) and one in the Fitzwilliam, Cambridge (a portrait perhaps of Mr Ashby, 1830, PD.221-1994). The present work predates all these. A charming Richmond drawing of Sherman asleep in a chair, dated 1828, can be found at the Cleveland Museum of Art, No.1981.29 (see image).
Auction: Decorative Works of Art, 24th Nov, 2015
