Lot Essay
The present pictures may be dated to the mid-1770s by comparison with dated works such as that in a private collection (Mitchell, op.cit., p. 22, no. 24, pl. 24; exhibited Osaka, Tokyo and Sydney, Flowers and Nature, Netherlandish Flower Painting of Four Centuries, 1990, pp. 243-4, no. 69, illustrated in colour p. 116) and that in the Rijksmuseum (Mitchell, op.cit., p. 24, no. 33, pl. 33), both dated 1774.
Lord Ward, later 1st Earl of Dudley, the first recorded owner of the present pictures, formed one of the finest collections in England of the mid-nineteenth century. His immense wealth permitted him to purchase the Bisenzo collection in Rome en bloc in 1847, while at almost exactly the same date acquiring from the Prince de Canino about a hundred pictures from the collection of his great-uncle, Cardinal Fesch. Lord Ward would display his latest purchases in a public gallery in London called the Egyptian Hall, where they were seen by fifty thousand visitors a year. He had a particular taste for fifteenth and sixteenth century paintings which was greatly appreciated by Waagen (op. cit., pp. 230 and 238) and his collection included such masterpieces as Fra Angelico's Last Judgement now in Berlin, Ercole de' Roberti's Saint Jerome offered in these Rooms, 13 December 1991, lot 76, Raphael's Crucifixion and The Mass of Saint Giles by the Master of Saint Giles, both now in the National Gallery. Many of Lord Dudley's Dutch pictures were also of remarkable quality. They included Rembrandt's Saint John the Baptist preaching now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Frans van Mieris' Inn Scene of 1658 now in the Mauritshuis and exceptional works by Hobbema, Adriaen van Ostade and Wouwerman, all included in the 1892 sale
Lord Ward, later 1st Earl of Dudley, the first recorded owner of the present pictures, formed one of the finest collections in England of the mid-nineteenth century. His immense wealth permitted him to purchase the Bisenzo collection in Rome en bloc in 1847, while at almost exactly the same date acquiring from the Prince de Canino about a hundred pictures from the collection of his great-uncle, Cardinal Fesch. Lord Ward would display his latest purchases in a public gallery in London called the Egyptian Hall, where they were seen by fifty thousand visitors a year. He had a particular taste for fifteenth and sixteenth century paintings which was greatly appreciated by Waagen (op. cit., pp. 230 and 238) and his collection included such masterpieces as Fra Angelico's Last Judgement now in Berlin, Ercole de' Roberti's Saint Jerome offered in these Rooms, 13 December 1991, lot 76, Raphael's Crucifixion and The Mass of Saint Giles by the Master of Saint Giles, both now in the National Gallery. Many of Lord Dudley's Dutch pictures were also of remarkable quality. They included Rembrandt's Saint John the Baptist preaching now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Frans van Mieris' Inn Scene of 1658 now in the Mauritshuis and exceptional works by Hobbema, Adriaen van Ostade and Wouwerman, all included in the 1892 sale