Live Auction 7610Important Old Master & British Pictures Day Sale Including Property From The Collection Of The Princely House Of Liechtenstein
Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury 1727-1788 London)
Lot 151

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury 1727-1788 London)

Portrait of Dr. William Walcot (1719-1806), half-length, in a blue coat, in a feigned oval

Closed9 July 2008

Price Realised

GBP 32,450

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Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury 1727-1788 London)
Portrait of Dr. William Walcot (1719-1806), half-length, in a blue coat, in a feigned oval
oil on canvas
30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm.)

J.C.C. Vowler Collection, by 1937.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 10 March 1965, lot 121 ($2,520 to Leger Galleries).
Julia H. Rush and Richard H. Rush Trust.

Specialist note

Dr. William Walcot (1719-1806) was a gentleman farmer originally from Northamptonshire, who owned land outside Oundle, Ashton, Polebrook and Walsoken in Norfolk. When this portrait was sold at Sotheby's in 1965 it had an old label on the reverse, which read 'Thomas Gainsborough pinxit, Bath June 11th, 1767'. A pendant portrait of the sitter's wife (née Mary Creed), which was lot 120 in the same sale, is also recorded as being dated '1767' on the reverse (E. Waterhouse, op. cit, p. 94, no. 699). While the label on the present portrait no longer survives, the style of execution and the age of the sitter accord with this date.