Live Auction 11974Old Master and British Paintings Day Sale
John Downman (Ruabon, N. Wales 1750-1824 Wrexham)
Lot 185

John Downman (Ruabon, N. Wales 1750-1824 Wrexham)

Portrait of Charles Chadwick (1753-1829), half-length, in a brown coat, yellow waistcoat and gown, wearing a mortar board, Emmanuel College, Cambridge beyond

Closed8 July 2016

Price Realised

GBP 11,250

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John Downman (Ruabon, N. Wales 1750-1824 Wrexham)
Portrait of Charles Chadwick (1753-1829), half-length, in a brown coat, yellow waistcoat and gown, wearing a mortar board, Emmanuel College, Cambridge beyond
signed and dated ‘J·Downman / Pinxt / 1779’ (lower right)
oil on copper
9 1/8 x 7 5/8 in. (23.3 x 19.4 cm.)
in its original frame

The Rev. Henry Madan Pratt, M.A., J.P., Southern House, Cheltenham; Christie’s, London, 23 May 1930, lot 144 (26 gns. to the following),
H. Burton-Jones, London.
Mrs K. Gifford Scott; (†) Sotheby’s, London, 14 March 1984, lot 54, (£5,280).
with Spink, London, 1984, where acquired by the present owner.

Specialist note

Painted in 1779, the year after Downman’s arrival in London, this beautifully preserved picture is a fine example of the artist’s small-scale portraits on copper. A preparatory drawing of the sitter, executed in 1778 when Downman was still based in Cambridge, is preserved in the Fitzwilliam Museum (Complete List of Portraits in the Sketch Books from Butleigh Court, Second Series, Volume the Fourth, no. 2, where erroneously described as ‘Mr Craddock of Emmanuel College’).