Lot 107: English School , 19th century A Lion and a Lioness Fighting a Python in a Landscape: An Allegory of the Triumph of Good over Evil oil on canvas

signed or inscribed 1841 / E. Gustave Girardot / âge de XI ans oil on canvas

measurements 71 in. by 91 in. alternate measurements 180.4 cm by 231.1 cm

Mrs. Helen Langford Brooke, Mere Hall, Knutsford, CheshireBy whose executors sold, Mere Hall, Knutsford, Cheshire, Christie's, May 23, 1994, lot 273, as English School, 19th century

According to the inscription, this composition was painted by the English artist Ernest Gustave Girardot at the age of eleven. While certainly a talented painter, it is unlikely that the artist, who began exhibiting in 1860, would have been able to paint such a dynamic scene at such a young age. The quality of this work is certainly indisputable, and it seems to have been painted by an artist under the influence of James Northcote (1746-1831), who was working near Mere Hall (see Provenance) in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.