Poppy Harvey-Jones
Head of Sale
Lot 20*
Attributed to Mary Beale(Barrow 1633-1699 London)Portrait of William, Lord Russell, bust-length, in a brown coat, within a painted oval
Amended
7 July 2021, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £7,012.50 inc. premium
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Attributed to Mary Beale (Barrow 1633-1699 London)
Portrait of William, Lord Russell, bust-length, in a brown coat, within a painted oval
bears inscription 'Wm/ Lord Russell.' (centre left)
oil on canvas
76.2 x 63.8cm (30 x 25 1/8in).
bears inscription 'Wm/ Lord Russell.' (centre left)
oil on canvas
76.2 x 63.8cm (30 x 25 1/8in).
Footnotes
William Russell, Lord Russell, (1639–1683), was the third but second surviving son of William Russell, fifth Earl and later first Duke of Bedford. An active member of the House of Commons he supported the Country and subsequently the Whig parties in opposition and in alliance with his wife's kinsman, the Earl of Shaftesbury. In 1683 Russell was arrested and sent to the Tower charged with conspiring with others in the scheme to raise rebellion by seizing the king's guards and thereby, in law, to kill the king (known as the Rye House Plot). After being found guilty of High Treason, on the 21 July he was executed in Lincoln's Inn Fields, the king having commuted his sentence to beheading. Under the later Whig ascendancy he was dubbed "the Patriot" and "the Martyr".
Saleroom notices
We are grateful to Dr. Helen Draper for confirming that the present work is by Mary Beale and for suggesting that it depicts a member of the Russell family. The work will be included in her forthcoming monograph on Mary Beale.