Just who is he?
The CCRA Family History Fair which starts on today (5 October if you are reading this on Monday) got me thinking about the topic…not about my family who I can trace back to persecuted immigrants from mainland Europe… Poland two generations back and Latvia three great grandparents ago.
I was thinking about the sitter of the portrait hanging on the wall in my home-offfice. My mother left the painting to me in her will along with a sizeable fortune… ok, the fortune is not true, especially when any estate is split amonst three additional siblings, but the painting was something I always coveted.
My mother bought it in an antique shop somewhere in Devon in the 1970s. It’s an interesting, but fairly ordinary oil painting dating, I guess, from sometime early in the 19th century.
Early in my career as a museum curator, I persuaded an art restorer colleague to clean and restore the painting, so it’s almost as good as new!
But I have no idea when the picture was painted, nor do I know who the old man is…but he will be someone’s distant relative… and that’s it… his descendants are out there somewhere, but there’s no way that they will ever be able to get to meet their ancestor!
I feel I must rise to the challenge here! This is a very fine portrait. I should be able to give you a date to the nearest year, with a little research on the dress and fabulous hairstyle on this fashionable if older gentleman.
As to who he is, and the artist. Was there no name of the sitter or date or artist’s name in paint on the canvas itself, on the back of the canvas or the frame, that was uncovered when you had the portrait restored? Do you know anything about the antique shop where the portrait was bought?
Why did your mother buy it? Was there a good local story to go with it? Back in the 1970s it might be fair to say that we could hope that it might be a local Devonshire gentleman, perhaps we could look at house inventories, sales and so forth for that period through the Devonshire papers and Devon Record Office.
What about putting an image into the local paper, or send to local history societies down there, to investigate for you. Have you contacted the local museums and National Trust properties?
I am sure we could find a list of artists who were working in that area at that time, which I assume is the early Regency period.
Alison Carter
Senior Keeper of Art & Design
Museums Service
Unfortunately there is no identifying information anywhere on the painting, nor do I know where in Devon it was purchased.