Lot 22: Anton von Maron (1733-1808)

Portrait of Francis William Skipwith (c.1737-1781), half-length, in a red coat with gold trim and buttons
with inscription and date 'Ant Maron. fecit/Roma 1766' (on the relining canvas, presumably copying an original inscription)
oil on canvas
30 3/4 x 26 in. (78.2 x 66 cm.)

By descent from the sitter to the present owner.

Francis William Skipwith (c.1737-1781) was one of four sons of Sir Francis Skipwith, 3rd Bt. (d.1778), of Newbold Pacey Hall, near Warwick, and his wife Ursula, youngest daughter of Thomas Cartwright of Aynho, Northamptonshire. His father was painted twice by Thomas Gainsborough, and his elder brother, Sir Thomas Skipwith, 4th Bt. (c.1735-1790), was painted by the American artist Gilbert Stuart (for which see lot 39).

The sitter was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. His brother, Sir Thomas, is recorded in The Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy 1701-1800, as 'probably [being] the 'Skipmith' [sic] returning home [from Italy] via Portugal, whom Giuseppe Baretti met in Genoa in about May 1766'. However, it is equally plausible that this 'Skipmith' was the present sitter. Clearly Francis was also in Italy at the time in order to have been painted by Maron in 1766.

Anton von Maron was the pupil and brother-in-law of Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-1779). In the later 1750s Mengs had painted a succession of distinguished portraits of British visitors to Rome, in overt competition with those of Batoni. Mengs' departure for Spain in 1761 meant that in the ensuing period a number of such portrait commissions went to von Maron, of which the present work is a fine example.

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.