Lot 17: EDWARD BYNG (1675-1753)

DOUBLE PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM AND MARY LEVINZ, FULL-LENGTH, THE FORMER IN A BLUE COSTUME WITH RED WRAP, HOLDING A BOW AND ARROW, THE LATTER IN A YELLOW DRESS AND OYSTER WRAP, HER RIGHT HAND RESTING ON A LAMB WITH GARLAND OF FLOWERS, IN A LANDSCAPE
signed and dated 'Byng. Pinx:/Anno 1692' (lower left) and inscribed 'Guil: Levinz/Anno AEtat 5-10' (centre left)
oil on canvas
52 x 45 7/8 in. (132.1 x 116.7 cm.)
In a William and Mary carved and gilded running pattern frame

London, Charles Young Fine Paintings, Ltd., Exhibition of English Pictures 1600-1900, 12 June - 18 July, 1980, no. 1.

with Pawsey & Payne Ltd., London.

William Levinz matriculated at Oxford aged 15 on 26 October 1703, and it seems likely that he was born circa 1687/1688. His sister, Mary, was born in 1690. They were the two surviving children of Baptist Levinz (c.1644-1693), Bishop of Sodor and Man, and his wife Mary (1663-1730), daughter of James Hyde, who was Principal of Magdalen Hall, Oxford. Baptist Levinz was White's Professor of moral philosophy (1677-1682), a university proctor, and Magdalen Hall bursar in 1677. Between 1680 and 1682 Baptist was curate at Horspath, Oxford. William Levinz died on 3 November 1706, his sister, Mary, married Matthew Frampton, M.D., and died in 1724.

Edward Byng, one of the nine sons of Thomas Byng, was born at Potterne, Wiltshire, and is known to have worked as an assistant and drapery painter in the studio of Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723). At the time of Kneller's death he was Kneller's chief assistant and was charged in Kneller's will to complete unfinished portraits. His elder brother, Robert Byng (fl. 1697-1720), painted portraits and sporting conversation pieces.

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