Name: Attributed to Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland, 1st Baronet, R.A. (London 1735-1811 Winchester)
Brand: Portrait of a Lord Mayor of London, traditionally identified as Sir Brook Watson, 1st Bt. (1735-1807), three-quarter-length
Price: 2000.00 USD
Availability: SoldOut

Attributed to Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland, 1st Baronet, R.A. (London 1735-1811 Winchester)
Portrait of a Lord Mayor of London, traditionally identified as Sir Brook Watson, 1st Bt. (1735-1807), three-quarter-length
oil on canvas, laid down on board, unframed
49¹⁄₂ x 39³⁄₄ in. (125.8 x 100.9 cm.)

Grosvenor Blaine Clarkson (1882-1937), New York.
with The Norton Galleries, New York, by 1933, where acquired by the following
with Robert C. Vose Galleries, Boston, in 1933, where (possibly) acquired by
Booth Tarkington (1869-1946), Kennebunkport, ME, by 1935.
with Robert C. Vose Galleries, Boston, by 1944, where acquired by
The John Herron Art Institute, later the Indianapolis Museum of Art, in 1944.

F.W. Bayley, The life and works of John Singleton Copley, founded on the work of Augustus Thorndike Perkins, Boston, 1915, p. 254, as a portrait of Sir Brooke Watson said to be by John Singleton Copley, and erroneously stating that the portrait had belonged to Mr. Pulitzer of New York.
Boston Sunday Post, 24 February 1935, illustrated.
Boston Sunday Post, 19 January 1936, illustrated.
Boston Sunday Post, 2 February 1936.
Milwaukee Art Institute, Bulletin of the Milwaukee Art Institute 12, no. 7, March 1938, illustrated on the cover.
Atlanta Art Association High Museum of Art, Museum News 1, no. 1, March 1941.
D.E.W. Gibb, Lloyd's of London: A Study of Individualism, London, 1957, illustrated, as by John Singleton Copley of Sir Brook Watson.
E. Spaeth, American Art Museums and Galleries, New York, 1960, 108-9, illustrated, as by John Singleton Copley of Sir Brook Watson.
The Vincent Price Treasury of American Art, Waukesha, WI, 1972, p. 22, illustrated, as by John Singleton Copley of Sir Brook Watson.

Portland, ME, L.D.M. Sweat Memorial Museum, January-May 1935.
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, January-June 1936.
Brunswick, ME, Walker Gallery, Bowdoin College, January-May 1937.
Montreal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, The Painter and the New World, 9 June-30 July 1967, no. 122, as by John Singleton Copley of Sir Brook Watson.
Omaha, NE, Joslyn Art Museum, The Growing Spectrum of American Art, 20 September-9 November 1975, no. 19, as by John Singleton Copley of Sir Brook Watson.

This lot is offered without reserve.

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Lot Essay

For much to the 20th century, the sitter was held to be Sir Brook Watson, 1st Bt., Lord Mayor of London (1796–1797). This identification may have been perpetuated because of the manner in which the drapery covers the sitter's proper left leg; Watson lost his leg to a shark in Havana while at sea in 1749, but it was his right leg rather than his left. Furthermore, there is sufficient volume in the area of the left leg to suggest that the artist intended it to be perceived as present, albeit covered.
The authorship of this portrait was traditionally given to the Anglo-American painter, John Singleton Copley. However, the painting can be more convincingly ascribed to Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland, to whose portrait of Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford (c. 1773; National Portrait Gallery, London) the present picture bears a striking resemblance, above all in the treatment of the hands and costume.
Post Lot Text
This lot is offered without reserve which will be sold to the highest bidder regardless of the pre-sale estimate.