Live Auction 8014The Cowdray Sale: Works of Art from Cowdray Park and Dunecht House, At Cowdray Park, West Sussex
Sir Godfrey Kneller (Lübeck 1646-1723 London)
Lot 69

Sir Godfrey Kneller (Lübeck 1646-1723 London)

Portrait of a gentleman, traditionally identified as John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby (1647-1721), full-length, in a dark coat with a brown mantle, seated by a table

Closed15 September 2011

Price Realised

GBP 8,750

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Sir Godfrey Kneller (Lübeck 1646-1723 London)
Portrait of a gentleman, traditionally identified as John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby (1647-1721), full-length, in a dark coat with a brown mantle, seated by a table
with erroneous identifying inscription 'Sheffield Duke of Buckingham and Normanby Earl of Mulgrave Died 1721.' (lower left)
oil on canvas
94 x 60 in. (238.8 x 152.4 cm.)
in a contemporary carved and gilded 'running-pattern' frame

Acquired from Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, in 1913, by Weetman Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray.

Specialist note

An old label on the reverse reads: '1747 Duke of Buckingham Sir G. Kneller 257 gns'. However, the traditional identification of the sitter as the statesman and author John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, who Gilbert Burnet described as 'a nobleman of learning, and good natural parts, but of no principle', is not accepted by Stewart (op. cit.) and is considered doubtful by John Ingamells (op. cit.). Stewart dates the portrait to circa 1685.