Portrait of a lady, traditionally identified as Penelope Howard, half-length, holding a pet bird

Details

English School, 18th Century
Portrait of a lady, traditionally identified as Penelope Howard, half-length, holding a pet bird
oil on canvas
29 ¼ x 24 ¼ in. (74.3 x 61.4 cm.)

Provenance

with Needham's Antiques, New York, where acquired in 1946 by Peggy and David Rockefeller, as 'Gainsborough'.

Literature

M. Potter et al, The David and Peggy Rockefeller Collection: European Works of Art, New York, 1984, vol. I, p. 43.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

In the preface to the 1984 volume of the European collection, David Rockefeller quipped that when he and Peggy acquired this painting it was "thought to have been an early Gainsborough" but that he suspected "it never saw his brush!" (op. cit.).

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