Lot 181: John Faber the Elder (The Hague c. 1660 - 1721 Bristol)

Portrait of John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough, around 1704, pen and black ink on parchment, 10.1 x 10.3 cm, inscribed in the artist's hand Duke of Marlborough & c:; with an old inscription on the reverse 8271/Joh. Faber d. Aelt. geb. 1660 gest. 1721 aus Sammlung Lumnitzer-Brünn.

This painting of a military commander in armour depicted in a heroic pose is characteristic of Faber's oeuvre and must have been executed in 1704 or shortly afterwards, when John Churchill, an ancestor of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, acquired renown all over Europe due to his glorious victories. The artist's great popularity was based on small-scale pen drawings on parchment like the present one, mostly inscribed with the sitters' names. Faber belonged to the circle of Godfrey Kneller, the leading English portraitist in the decades around 1700.
See also lot 182.