Live Auction 21459Old Master and British Drawings and Watercolours
JOHN RUSSELL, R.A. (PLYMOUTH 1745-1806 HULL)
Lot 121

JOHN RUSSELL, R.A. (PLYMOUTH 1745-1806 HULL)

Portrait of Major Edward Topham (1751-1820), half-length in a blue coat, holding a quill

Closed4 July 2023

Price Realised

GBP 11,340

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JOHN RUSSELL, R.A. (PLYMOUTH 1745-1806 HULL)
Portrait of Major Edward Topham (1751-1820), half-length in a blue coat, holding a quill
signed and dated 'J. Russell pinxt./ 1788' (centre left)
pastel
23 1/2 x 17 1/4 in.. (59.7 x 43.8 cm.)

The sitter, and by descent to his grandson
Rear-Admiral Trollope.
J. Pierpont Morgan, 1907.
Anonymous sale; Christies, London, 10 July 1984, lot 150.
with Spink, London, where purchased by the present owner.

Specialist note

Topham was a playwright, pamphleteer, and adjutant of the Horse-Guards. In 1787 he founded the daily paper The World, where he first published his Life of the late John Elwes, which ran through twelve editions and was described by Horace Walpole as 'one of the most amusing anecdotal books in the English Language'.