Beschreibung:

Sir Francis Grant P.R.A. (1803-1878) oil on canvas, Portrait of Maria, Lady Lechmere and her daughter, Louisa, signed and dated 1842, 49 x 39.5in. Estimate £10,000-15,000 Former Provenance: Private Collection, Devon. Sir Francis Grant was the most fashionable portrait painter of his day. He painted royalty and aristocracy, as well as many leading figures in the legal and literary worlds, and the Church. His subjects included Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Palmerston, Disraeli, Lord John Russell Sidney Herbert and Lord Derby. Grant was educated at Harrow, and as a young man, having quickly run through an inheritance of £10,000, he had hopes of repairing his fortunes at the bar. However, as Sir Walter Scott observed, 'law is not a profession so easily acquired, nor did Frank's talents lie in that direction. His passion for painting turned out better.' As an artist Grant was largely self-taught, learning by copying the Old Masters. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1834 when he was thirty-one, and continued to show there regularly until his death forty-four years later. He rapidly ascended the institutional ladder, and became president in 1866 on the death of Sir Charles Eastlake; a knighthood followed soon after. Grant was succeeded as president by Frederic, Lord Leighton. Oil on canvas cleaned, relined and restored within the past 10 years or so, canvas remains tight, paint clean with a fine but stable craquelure showing through much of the work, signed and dated lower right, in a later gilt scroll frame which is in equally good condition.