| | | | | | | | Document | Sale Catalog Br-1753 | |
| Auction House | Christie's -- from catalog: Mr. Christie | | Sale Location | [No.125] Pall Mall, London, England, UK | | Seller(s) | from catalog: The Late Sir Robert Strange, Knt.; [and] A Gentleman, Dec...from South Wales
from auctioneer's copy: Sir Robert Strange; Johnson; Otway; etc. | | Lugt Number | 9499 | | No. of Painting Lots | 136 | | Notes | The title page of the catalogue for this picture sale specifies that the principal group of works had once been in the collection of Sir Robert Strange (1721-1792), the prominent engraver who had died more than two decades earlier. These works are identified as lots 70-106 in the catalogue, and Christie's daybooks record that all had been delivered from the European Museum, where they had been unsuccessfully put up for sale from at least March, 1818. (See no.1632.) The same daybooks also record the name of their consigner simply as Robert Strange (not Sir Robert), which might refer to either Sir Robert or his third son of the same name. Since two of the lots were bought in by "Strange," it was evidently a member of the family who was selling them.
The title page also refers to a deceased gentleman from South Wales who is identified by the daybooks as a certain Mr. Johnson from Swansea. The paintings were consigned by his widow and are nos.1-35 in the catalogue. A third group, constituting lots 107-134, is described by the catalogue as having been recently imported from the continent. These paintings had been consigned by a certain Capt. Otway in Canterbury. They are almost entirely Dutch or Flemish works and so, if they were indeed of recent import, they had probably come from the Netherlands.
The remaining lots were consigned by a variety of other people, one of whom is given only the initial "F" but who can be identified as Thomas Fauquier. One of his paintings, a depiction of a boy drawing by Chardin, is sometimes claimed, probably erroneously, to be the canvas of this subject now in the Louvre. It had been left unsold in a much earlier sale devoted to the collection of his father, William Fauquier, held on Jan.30, 1789. At the present sale it again failed to find a buyer, and was among a group of Fauquier's paintings that were re-consigned to a sale on June 17, 1820 (no.1753). The results of the present sale were mostly mediocre. Many lots were sold, but the most expensive failed to find buyers. Strange's pictures brought the largest amounts: A Magdalen by Reni cost £84, and a Virgin and Child with St. John by Trevisani fetched £74.11. The great majority of the pictures belonging to Johnson and Otway were sold for less than £10. (B. Fredericksen) | | Catalog Location(s) | CL [annotations used in Sales Contents; photocopy in Provenance Index Sales Files] Auctioneer's copy, annot. with all sellers, buyers and prices. | | Photocopies | NGL, FLNY, RKDH, BIB and CIL (all of CL) | | See Also | Sale Contents | | | Art Sales Catalogues Online | | | Digitized Catalog - Frick | | | |
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