Portrait of Penelope Bayfield of Dedham Grove, Essex, three-quarter-length

Details

Thomas Hudson (Devonshire ?1701-1779 Twickenham)
Portrait of Penelope Bayfield of Dedham Grove, Essex, three-quarter-length
oil on canvas
50 1/8 x 40 1/8 in. (127.3 x 101.9 cm.)

Provenance

with Agnew's, London, by 1933.
with James A. Lewis & Son, New York.
Baron and Baroness Carl von Seidlitz, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, New York; their sale, Parke-Bernet, New York, 3 May 1947, lot 106, when acquired for $650 by
Dr. W. Philipp, Great Neck Estates, Long Island.
with Leggatt, where acquired by the present owner in 1984.

Lot Essay

The sitter's pose and the background rock ledge are close to Hudson's well-known portrait of Mary Panton, Duchess of Ancaster (d. 1793; Grimsthorpe Castle, Ancaster Collection), dated 1757, as well as a portrait of Margaret Oxenden by Hudson's pupil, Joseph Wright of Derby (Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales). The present painting probably dates to the second half of the 1750s, when Hudson was in competition with his greatest pupil, Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), for prominent London portrait commissions.

A portrait of similar size by Hudson said to depict William Bayfield was with Agnew's in 1921.

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