John Vanderbank (London 1694-1739)
Lot 140 The Property of St. Mary's University College, removed from Strawberry Hill, Twickenham (lots 133-138)

John Vanderbank (London 1694-1739)

Portrait of a gentleman, three-quarter-length, in a blue coat and oyster satin waistcoat, pointing at a manuscript of Dryden's play All for Love', 1678, a landscape beyond

Closed11 July 2008

Price Realised

GBP 5,625

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John Vanderbank (London 1694-1739)
Portrait of a gentleman, three-quarter-length, in a blue coat and oyster satin waistcoat, pointing at a manuscript of Dryden's play All for Love', 1678, a landscape beyond
signed 'Jon. Vanderbank' (lower right) and inscribed 'All for Love or The World Well Lost A Tragedy/...' (on the manuscript, lower right)
oil on canvas
50 x 40 in. (127 x 101.7 cm.)

Specialist note

For a note on the artist, see lot 57.

All for Love, or the World Well Lost (1677), Dryden's tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra, was the first of the dramatist's works to abandon his practice of presenting his plays in rhymed couplets. At the time it was considered a huge success, and unlike Shakespeare's drama, it concentrated on the dramatic dichotomy between Anthony's duties as a statesman and a Roman, and his passion for Cleopatra, rather than solely on the clash between the egoes of history's most famous lovers.