Lot 13: Gawen Hamilton (1697-1737)

Elegant figures playing cards at a table in an interior, with an artist behind the group oil on canvas 24 x 22 in. (61 x 56 cm.) in an 18th Century carved and gilded frame PROVENANCE Presumably Mr. Hammond of Colchester. Presumably the Reverend Charles Onley, Stisted Hall, Essex, by 1794, and by descent to Onley Savill-Onley. Presumably Onley Savill-Onley; Christie's, London, 16 June 1894, lot 56, as 'Hogarth' (60 gns. to Colnaghi). Oscar Bondy collection, Vienna, by 1929, as by Hogarth. LITERATURE Presumably the version recorded by the Gentleman's Magazine, 1794, LXIV, part II, pp.903-4, as at Stisted Hall, Essex and by Hogarth. Dr. E. Einberg and J. Egerton, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery Collections, The Age of Hogarth, British Painters born 1675-1709, 1988, p. 38, under no. 15, fig. 8. NOTES This picture shows two ladies and a gentleman playing cards at a table, while a butler and a page serve wine from a cooler on the left. In the background a painter, equipped with palette and followed by an assistant carrying what is presumably a folder of sketches, appears to be passing through the room, gesturing either towards a doorway or to the gentleman on the right. Three versions of this composition are known. The others, which are of the same format, are in the Tate Gallery (no. 00943; E. Einberg and J. Egerton, op.cit., no.15) and the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (E. Einberg and J. Egerton, p. 36, fig. 6). This composition differs slightly from the other versions in that a spaniel that appears in the other two, at the foot of the right hand sitter's dress, does not appear here. The very detailed description of the version at Stisted Hall, Essex, in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1794 ( op.cit. ), mentions the cat in the composition but makes no mention of a dog, which indicates that it is likely to be the present picture. The Walker Art Gallery version has an unbroken provenance going back to 1844 when F. Croix of Pall Mall sold it as 'The Thornhill Family' by Hogarth, claiming a tenuous Thornhill provenance for it. Since its first appearance in the 18th Century the composition has been associated with Hogarth, however, stylistically it is much closer to the work of the Scottish artist Gawen Hamilton who was one of Hogarth's chief rivals in 'conversation pieces'. The sitters on the right of the composition have traditionally been identified as the artist Sir James Thornhill (1675-1734) and his wife. Ralph Edwards in his Early Conversation Pictures (London, 1954, p.66) suggested that the artist in the background was a self-portrait by Hamilton on the basis of comparison with his self-portrait in his celebrated A Conversation of Virtuosis of 1735 in the National Portrait Gallery, London. More recently Elizabeth Einberg and Judy Egerton have suggested that the artist in the background of the picture could be Dietrich Ernst Andr‚, of Brunswick, who came to England in 1722 where he stayed until 1724. Andr‚ assisted Sir James Thornhill with the decorations of the Great Hall Greenwich and his appearance is well documented by a confident self-portrait at the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Brunswick, Germany, and two others in the Kunsthalle, Hamburg (see Einberg and Egerton op.cit., p. 39). Andr‚ is also recorded by George Vertue as having married while in England and Einberg and Egerton have suggested that this may be a marriage portrait, showing Andr‚'s wife in the centre, which might explain the traditional identification of the right hand figures as Sir James and Lady Thornhill, Andre's closest associates in England. As Einberg and Egerton comment that the likenesses of the figures to the right of the composition are not incompatible with Richardson's drawing of Thornhill of 1733 (British Museum) and the anonymous portrait of Lady Thornhill (Nostell Priory). The painting which features above the chimney piece, representing an allegory of painting and sculpture, is the same in each version of the composition suggesting that the pictures may have been executed for members of the same family and what seems likely to be the original was sold at Christie's, 19 June 1987, as lot 50, as by 'P.B.'. Einberg and Egerton suggest that the picture is very close to Andr‚'s known work and that the monogram on the picture may be of Andr‚'s teacher, the decorative painter Justus Van Bentum with whom he worked and travelled for twelve years ( op.cit., p.39, fig.7).