62 - Amendment: Studio of Sir Godfrey Kneller (British, 1646-1723)

Amendment: Studio of Sir Godfrey Kneller (British, 1646-1723) Portrait of Anne Spencer (née Churchill), Countess of Sunderland (1683-1716)) inscribed 'Lady Sunderland' (lower left) oil on canvas Unframed: 110 x 104 cm. (43 1/4 x 41 in.) Framed: 127 x 121 cm. (50 x 47 3/4 in.) Sale; Minerva Auctions, Rome, 12 March 2013, lot 51 (as Sir Godfrey Kneller); Where purchased by the present owner. Property from a Distinguished U.K. Private Collection Exhibited: Newport, Wales, Newport Museum and Art Gallery, Samson Collection of English Masters, 9-30 June 1951, no. 27. Notes: Previously attributed to Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723) and Joseph Highmore (1692-1780), the present portrait can be dated to the 1720s and has been suggested by several experts to be by Kneller's pupil, Michael Dahl (1659-1743). Although Dahl was born in Stockholm, he spent most of his career in England painting portraits of aristocracy and royalty, initially studying and working with Kneller. The portrait has traditionally been identified as Anne Spencer (née Churchill), Countess of Sunderland (1683-1716), who married Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sutherland. The portrait is likely to have been completed after her death in 1716, and based on known portraits and sketches made by Kneller.1 The arrangement of the figure and positioning of the vibrant drapery is similar to other works by Dahl. See for example his portrait of Lady Anne Coventry, c. 1713, currently in the National Trust collection (NT 353023). In both portraits, the women are turned on a slight angle, with one arm resting on a surface, their fingers slightly overlapping one another, and the other hand gripping a small bouquet, in which the flowers are handled with loose fluid brush strokes. One can also observe that in many of his portraits, the sitter’s are presented with very defined and often quite angular facial features, in which the nose, full lips and eye areas are particularly accentuated. For example, the handling of the facial features of Lady Sunderland in the present painting can be closely compared to another portrait by Dahl, held by The Met Museum (no. 56.224.1), in which the shadowing around the nose and eye areas are particularly similar. Dahl also painted portraits of members of Anne Spencer's family. He produced a large portrait of her sister, Sarah Duchess of Marlborough, which was last sold at Christie's in 1993. Additionally, a full-length portrait of her son, Charles Duke of Marlborough (1706-1758), executed in 1737, which was last sold at Sotheby's New York in 2005.2 References: 1See for example a portrait of the Countess of Sunderland by Sir Godfrey Kneller, circa 1710, held by The National Portrait Gallery (NPG 803), and 2 W. Nisser, 'Michael Dahl and the Contemporary School of Painting in England', 1927, p. 66