Lot 15: Henry Walton , 1746 - 1813 The Young Angler oil on canvas, in a British Baroque carved and gilded frame

oil on canvas, in a British Baroque carved and gilded frame

61 by 74.5 cm., 24 by 29 1/2 in.

Robert Keirle, grandfather of the present owner, by whom bought circa 1860

THE PROPERTY OF A LADY
Born into a farming family from Dickleburgh, Norfolk, Walton came to London in 1765, at the age of nineteen, though apparently not with the initial intention of becoming an artist. By 1770 however he was enrolled as an art student at the Maiden Lane Academy in Covent Garden, and later became a pupil of Johan Zoffany, to whom he was probably introduced by his friend Ambrose Humphreys. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Artists in 1771, and director the following year. Walton first started exhibiting genre pictures, such as the present work, in 1776 with A Girl Plucking a Turkey (Tate Collection), shortly after returning from a visit to Paris, where he had made the acquaintance of Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin. According to his friend Dawson Turner, Walton frequently travelled to Paris 'with a view to studying or of buying pictures.' [i] As well as continuing to painting and exhibit his own works, by the early 1790s Walton had established himself as a successful picture dealer and advisor to some of the major collectors of the day, including Lord Lansdowne, Lord Fitzwilliam, and Sir Thomas Beauchamp-Proctor. His expertise was such that, according to Turner, 'there was scarcely a picture of note in this country, with the history of which he was unacquainted'.
We are grateful to Dr. Evelyne Bell for confirming the attribution of the present painting and for dating the painting to c. 1780. i. D. Turner, Outline of Lithography, 1840, p. 22