Beschreibung:

ATTRIBUTED TO JAMES NORTHCOTE R.A. (BRITISH 1746-1831), AFTER SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS DAVID GARRICK `THE PROLOGUE PORTRAIT' Oil on canvas 77 x 63cm (30¼ x 24¾ in.) Provenance: (Possibly), Mrs Piozzi, Streatham Park, Surrey Sale, George Squibb, on the premises, 8 May 1816, first day's sale, lot 63, 183 gns. Dr Charles Burney (1726-1814) By descent to Miss Burney. Sale, Christie's, London, 31 March 1922, lot 31, as 'Sir J. Reynolds', 609 gns. to Weston. S.R. Hibbard, London Sale, Christie's, London, 9 March 1923, lot 132, as 'Sir J. Reynolds', 787 gns. Sir James Roberts Bt. (1848-1935), The Hall, Fairlight. Sale, Christie's, London, 20 March 1936, lot 75, (with incorrect exhibition history), 267 gns. J. Mitchell, London. Sale, Christie's, London, 24 November 1972, lot 140, as 'Sir Joshua Reynolds', (with incorrect exhibition history). Sale, Christie's, London, Property of the Late Geoffrey and the Hon. Carole Lawson, Stilemans, Surrey, 13 November 2019, lot 216. Literature: (Possibly) A. Graves and W.V. Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A., London, 1899, I, pp. 347-348, with incorrect exhibition history. (Possibly) W. Armstrong, Reynolds, London, 1900, p. 207, as 'a replica of the Duke of Bedford's painting' D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds: a complete catalogue of his paintings, New Haven and London, 2000, p. 211, no. 705e, as 'possibly Northcote'. Exhibited: (Possibly) London, Royal Academy, Exhibition of Old Masters and deceased masters of the British School, 1877, no. 124. This portrait of the theatre manager, playwright and actor, David Garrick (1717-79), is a copy of 'The Prologue Portrait' (c. 1776) by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-92). It shows Garrick with a manuscript inscribed 'Prologue' in large cursive script, an allusion to his lauded practice of writing prologues to plays staged at Drury Lane. The actor stage-manager's prologues became famous, and Garrick would deliver them in the style of a virtuoso orator priming his audience. The original painting was acquired by the 3rd Duke of Dorset in 1780, and has been at Knole, Kent, from at least 30 August of that year when it was seen by Horace Walpole in the Chamber of Poets (NT 129936). The painting offered here is probably by James Northcote (1746-1831), who was a pupil of Reynolds from 1771, lodging with him for five years. Northcote probably made several copies of this popular subject (Mannings, p. 211). On the 17 April 1776, he wrote to his brother, Samuel: 'I have made some more copies which I shall send down when I leave London, particularly one of Garrick which is vastly like. This I will not sell under ten guineas as the original will be in the Exhibition (ibid.). The Reynolds painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1776 (no. 241). There are at least four other copies known including one formerly at Woburn Abbey, supposedly painted for the Duke of Bedford. In 1900, what is possibly the copy offered here, was described by the art historian, Sir Walter Armstrong, as 'a replica of the Duke of Bedford's painting' (Armstrong, p. 207). The other copies are: an untraced version, possibly painted for either Bennet Langton or Topham Beauclerk; an oval example in the Garrick Club, London and one in the Royal Collection (RCIN 406432).