Lot 39: Mason Chamberlin R.A. , 1727-1787 Portrait of Frances Adcock, Mrs Robert Butcher oil on canvas, in a painted oval, held in a Neoclassical frame

half-length, wearing a dark satin dress with lace collar and cap oil on canvas, in a painted oval, held in a Neoclassical frame

measurements note 74 by 62 cm., 29 1/2 by 24 1/2 in.

Mr and Mrs Edward Everett, The Old Parsonagate, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire (by. 1966)

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
The sitter was the wife of Robert Butcher, steward and land agent to John Russell, 4υth Duke of Bedford. They were married at St Ethelburga Church in Bishopsgate, London, on the 5υth January 1732. Robert entered the service of the Duke sometime in 1738 and supervised the dramatic expansion of the Bedford estates between 1747 and 1754, securing his patron a commanding political advantage and making him one of the five largest landowners in England, for which he received a not inconsiderable salary of £700 per annum.

Mrs Butcher sat to Chamberlin again in 1778 (Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts). The Butcher's were also clearly well acquainted with Thomas Gainsborough. Mr Butcher was portrayed twice; the first hangs alongside the portrait of Mrs Butcher in the Williams College mentioned above, the second is now in the Prado Museum, Madrid. Their son, Thomas, also sat to Gainsborough as did his wife Elizabeth Ives, Mrs Thomas Butcher (the latter sold Sotheby's London, 6th April 1993, lot 48).