Lot 198: Claude Lorraine Ferneley (1822-1892)

Claude Lorraine Ferneley (1822-1892)
John Ferneley Senior in his studio at Elgin Lodge, Melton Mowbray
signed, inscribed and dated 'Claude L Ferneley/Melton Mowbray 1866.' (lower right)
oil on canvas
19 x 25 in. (48.3 x 63.8 cm.)

Leicester, Leicester Museums and Art Gallery, John Ferneley, 1762-1860, 15 October-13 November 1960, no. 54.

G. Paget, The Melton Mowbray of John Ferneley, Leicester, 1931,
illustrated opposite p. 102.

The Hon. Mrs. Tennant, by 1931, and by descent to the present owner.

Claude Ferneley, a successful artist in his own right, sometimes
assisted his father, John Ferneley Senior, in the painting of
backgrounds to his pictures. After his father's death, Claude is known to have been commissioned to make copies of Ferneley's Senior's pictures when a patron wanted a replica of a favourite work. The present picture, painted six years after John's death, may well have been a commission from a client who owned a number of Senior's pictures. The work on the wall appears to show the larger part of The Quorn at Quenby of 1823, a huge and celebrated picture ownership of which was decided on the role of dice in 1825, forty-two shares of five guineas each having been subscribed. The winner was Sir Bellingham Graham, Master of the Quorn hunt, and the picture is still at Norton Conyers. A sketch for the finished picture, measuring 15 x 38 inches, is in the Leicester Museum and Art Gallery.