GEORGE BEARE (fl. 1740-1749) A portrait of Jane Coles as a y...

Hammer

£26,000

GEORGE BEARE (fl. 1740-1749) A portrait of Jane Coles as a young girl

aged 4 and a half, three-quarter length, in a white dress holding a doll with a cat and a basket of peaches to one side, signed and dated 1749, oil on canvas, 75cm x 62cm, apparently retaining the original rococo giltwood frame carved and pierced with leafy scrolls, rocaille-work, crinkled ribbons and flowerheads

Provenance: According to family records and the old valuation, this painting was included in the inventory of Ven taken circa 1850 located in the Hall.

Literature: NPG Archive and Library, London: CH Collins Baker, MS list of portraits by George Beare, nd.: ibid, "A Portrait Painter Rediscovered" Country Life 20th March 1958, p.573.

Ex: Bristol, 1937 (73) as by William Hogarth; Taunton 1946 (30); Royal Academy British Portraits, 1956-57 (20)

Jane Coles (1744-1824), daughter of William and Jane Coles of The Close, Salisbury, married in 1766 Thomas Hutchings (afterwards Hutchings Medlycott), of Ven House, Somerset, later MP for Milborne Port (1763-70), 180-81), as Salisbury Cathedral, 18th September 1766. At the time of her marriage, Jane was described as "a very agreeable and accomplished young lady with a £20,000 fortune".

As Jane's birthday fell on 17th December and this portrait must have been painted before the artist's death in May of 1749, Jane must have been nearer four than five years old.

Exhibited as recently as 1937 as by Hogarth himself, this painting is one of the outstanding child-portraits of the 18th century. Despite its slightly unfinished appearance, it compares well with Hogarth's portraits of Hannah and John Ranby (c.1750 exhibited at the Tate Gallery in 1987/8 (Manners and Morals Nos 191 & 192) and with the Portrait of a Young Boy attributed to Gainsborough, and now at Gainsborough's House in Suffolk (c.1744-5)

The liveliness and charm of young Jane are hard to resist; the artist has clearly interrupted some highly entertaining game she was playing with here favourite doll and pet cat. Also, while she has apparently been dressed up for the occasion, the impression is given that she would be more comfortable in her everyday clothes, and that her hair has been rather hastily crammed into her demure lace cap.

We are extremely grateful to David Coke FSA for his assistance with this catalogue entry.