Lot 41: John Simmons (c.1715-1780)

Portrait of a boy, three-quarter-length, traditionally identified as 'Master Best', in a blue coat and floral waistcoat, holding a bow and arrow, in a wooded landscape
signed 'J.W. Simmons, pinx 4' (lower left)
oil on canvas
30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm.)

Eric Bullivant, Parnham House, Dorset.

John Simmons, who was born in Nailsea, ran a business as a house and ship painter in Bristol. Ellis Waterhouse commented that his 'earlier portrait style shows a knowledge of Hogarth' and that 'by the 1770s his portraits are on a par with those of Beach... and are of excellent quality' (E. Waterhouse, The Dictionary of British 18th Century Painters, Woodbridge, 1981, p.345). Other portraits by him can be found in the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery.

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