Lot 50: John Bostock , 1826-1869 rose bradwardine, the heroine of walter scott's novel "waverley" oil on panel

signed and inscribed with the title and the artist's address on the reverse oil on panel

measurements note 45.5 by 35 cm.; 18 by 13 ¾ in.

Art Union, 1845, p 188

Sotheby's Parke-Bernet, New York, 12 May 1970, lot 298;
Christie's, London, 19 November 1970, lot 34;
Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, by whom sold to Malcolm Foster in January 1971;
Sotheby's Parke-Bernet, New York, 2 April 1975, lot 207;
Forbes Magazine Collection, New York;
Richard Green, c. 1978;
Sotheby's, Belgravia, 2 October 1979, lot 190;
Sotheby's, Belgravia, 1 April 1980, lot. 208 where bought by Lady Scott

Waverley, Walter Scott's first novel published in 1814, was set in the period of the Jacobite uprising. Edward Waverley, the romantic and impressionable son of an Hanoverian but with an uncle whose sympathies were Jacobite, was serving with his regiment in Scotland. In the course of a visit to the Baron of Bradwardine, a Jacobite friend of his uncle, he meets and falls in love with the gentle Rose, his host's daughter. With her encouragement he makes contact with other Jacobites, and is persuaded to join the cause. Compromised, he is imprisoned by his commanding officer. Rescued by the devoted Rose, he fights with the Jacobites at Prestonpans, where he saves the life of an English officer - an action which leads to him being pardoned.

John Bostock shows Rose Bradwardine as a fair-haired young woman, stylishly dressed in blue and with a miniature portrait - presumably of Edward Waverley - at her breast. Bostock, who was born in Staffordshire and seems to have operated from Manchester, painted figure subjects of this kind in the tradition of 'Keepsake Beauties', imaginary portraits of beautiful young woman, engraved and issued in magazines of the period, and which enjoyed a great vogue in the 1840s.