103 - Circle of John Hoppner, RA,

Circle of John Hoppner, RA, British 1758-1810- Portrait of a boy, traditionally identified as Joseph Mallord William Turner RA (1775-1851); oil on canvas, 47 x 35.5 cm. Provenance: Christie's, London, 25 March 1893, lot 363, as by 'J. Hoppner R.A.' (10 guineas to Spielmann) M. H. Spielmann (1858-1948), thence by descent. Private Collection, UK. Note: The sitter in this work has traditionally been identified as a young J.M.W. Turner. There are similarities between this sitter and the young Turner as depicted in the self-portrait in the collection of the Tate [N00458]. The likeness is sufficiently close to suggest that the boy could plausibly be the same person, depicted a few years earlier. Following the sale of the present work at Christie's in 1893, the Westminster Gazette of 5 April 1893 recorded: “An interesting early portrait of Turner was sold at Christie's the other day. It is by no less an artist than Hoppner, and represents the great landscapist when at the age of eight or thereabouts, full-face, and ruddy of countenance. The painting, characteristic enough of Hoppner, is laid on with a full brush loaded with juicy colour. This adds another to the brief list of authentic Turner portraits. There is that by the artist himself, delightfully ill-drawn, wrought when he was 16 years of age, now hanging at Brantwood. There is the drawing by Mulready; and the memory sketch by D'Orsay (or, as some say, by D'Orsay’s 'Ghost'). There is the Dance portrait for which Turner sat; the Linnell portrait, which, like Sir Edwin Landseer's sketch (now destroyed), and Charles Turner's painting, and Sir John Gilbert's drawing, was executed surreptitiously. Mr. Fawkes drew him also, and Maclise as well; and a year or two ago a portrait by Mr. Parrott came to light. But except to Hoppner, to Dance, and to himself, Turner never sat with his consent, for he had no exaggerated notion of his own beauty. He seemed rather to realise, painfully and over-sensitively, his comparative repulsiveness, and curtly rejected all overtures for his portrait. That is why the Hoppner portrait is at once interesting and important.” Sir George Scharf (1820-1895), the first Director of the National Portrait Gallery, also recorded the work, or a version of it, in one of his seven personal sketchbooks documenting his extensive survey of Old Master paintings in British collections. He sketched and described the picture on 18 July 1861. Scharf subsequently recorded seeing a similar picture at the London dealers and restorers Séguier & Smart in 1863, and another similar work in July 1874.