Lot 25: John Roddam Spencer Stanhope (1829-1908)

John Roddam Spencer Stanhope (1829-1908) A design for the reredos at Holy Trinity Church, Florence, including: The Crucifixion; The Annunciation; four Old Testament Prophets; and eight Angels inscribed 'Design for the Reredos/at Holy Trinity-Florence/by/R. Spencer Stanhope' (on a label attached to the backboard) and further inscribed 'angels....to be red one' (on the reverse of the backboard) pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour heightened with touches of white and gold, on paper, fourteen watercolours in an elaborate gilt-mahogany Gothic Revival frame by Bertini of Florence 20½ x 10 in. (52 x 25.4 cm.); and smaller; the frame 54½ x 33 7/8 in. (138.5 x 85.9 cm.) overall 14 in one frame

London, Carfax Gallery, Pictures and Drawings by the late R. Spencer Stanhope, 1909, no. 17. Recently on loan to the Treasury at Guildford Cathedral.

Peter Trippi, John Roddam Spencer Stanhope: The Early Years of a Second Generation Pre-Raphaelite 1858-1873, MA thesis, Courtauld Institute, University of London, 1993, p. 101. Judy Oberhausen and Nic Peeters, 'Rediscovering a Pre-Raphaelite Masterpiece: A Spencer Stanhope Altarpiece', British Art Journal, vol. VIII, no. 1, 2007, pp. 68-72, pls. 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11.

Bequeathed by the artist to his stepdaughter, Mrs Mure. Given by her in 1936 to Christ Church, Esher, Surrey, where it was displayed in the Lady Chapel.