Lot 2: Thomas Armstrong (1835-1911)

Thomas Armstrong (1835-1911) A Girl watching a Tortoise signed with monogram and dated '1873' (lower right) and further signed and inscribed 'girl watching a tortoise/painted by/T. Armstrong./121 Charlotte St/...' (on the artist's label on the reverse) oil on canvas 78¾ x 35½ in. (200 x 90 cm.)

London, Royal Academy, 1874, no. 1054.

Times, 26 May 1874, p. 6. Athenaeum, no. 2432, 6 June 1874, p. 766. Art Journal, 1874, p. 200. W. Shaw-Sparrow, 'The Collection of Mr Alexander Henderson', Magazine of Art, 1892, p. 20. L.M. Lamont (ed.), Thomas Armstrong, CB: A Memoir, London, 1912, p. 16. Albert Moore and his Contemporaries, exh. Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1972, cat. p. 31, under no. 88, as 'untraced'. R. Ash, 'English Paintings of 1874', Connoisseur, vol. 185, January 1974, p. 35.

Painted for Thomas Eustace Smith, M.P. in 1873. Bought from him by Alexander Henderson, first Baron Faringdon, in 1886; (+) Sotheby's, London, 13 June 1934, lot 97. Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, Belgravia, 27 March 1973, lot 85, bought Fine Art Society, London. Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 21 June 1983, lot 38. Private European Collection.