Lot 68: STEFANO TOFANELLI (1752-1812) PORTRAIT OF THE REV. HENRY NICHOLAS ASTLEY (B. 1767)

Half length, seated, wearing a black coat, his hat on a table beside him, a book in his right hand Signed l.r.; Stefano Toffanelli Ro, oil on canvas 72 by 59.5 cm.; 28 1/2 by 23 1/2 in. The sitter was the third son of Sir Edward Astley, 4th Bt. of Melton Constable, Norfolk and his wife Anne, daughter of Christopher Milles of Nackington, Kent. In 1798 he married Sarah, daughter of the Rev. John Pitman of Exeter. He was appointed Rector of Snoring with West Barsham in 1791, of Bintree and Themylthorpe in 1799 and of Foulsham in Norfolk in 1803. His daughter Jane married the Rev. William Frank Cubitt, Rector of Fritton. PROVENANCE By descent to Major Frank Astley Cubbitt, 28th July, 1910 LITERATURE Prince Frederick Duleep Singh, Portraits in Norfolk Houses, 1927, Vol II, p. 349, no. 3.