Lot 82: JOHN WESTBROOKE CHANDLER

1764-1804/5 EDINBURGH FOUR CHILDREN PLAYACTING AS MACBETH AND THE THREE WITCHES oil on canvas 77 3/4 by 59 in.; 197.5 by 149.7 cm.

London, Royal Academy, 1787, no. 384.

E. Bénézit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, Paris 1976, vol. 2, p. 657; E. Bénézit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, Paris 1999, vol. 3, p. 468.

Anonymous sale, New York, February 17, 1944; Anonymous sale ("The Property of a Lady"), London, Sotheby's, July 6, 1983, lot 241; With Richard Feigen, New York; From whom purchased by a private collector, New York; By whom anonymously sold ("The Property of a Private Collector"), New York, Sotheby's, 27 May 2004, lot 286; There purchased by the present owner.

Chandler was the natural son of the 2nd Earl of Warwick. He developed a style similar to Hoppner and Romney. Three of his portraits are at Eton College. The oil sketch for this portrait is at Belton House near Grantham in Lincolnshire, which was the seat of the Brownlow and Cust family. The children depicted have traditionally been thought to be Cust children and were probably the four elder daughters of the second marriage of the 1st Baron Brownlow. We are grateful to Alastair Laing for providing this information.