Lot 27: Mrs Elizabeth Clabburn

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Description: Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys (1829-1904) Mrs Elizabeth Clabburn signed with monogram (lower left) and inscribed 'Elizabeth Clabburn/Aged.75.' (upper right) oil on mahogany panel 24 x 19 5/8 in. (60.9 x 49.8 cm.)

Notes: Elizabeth Denn Clabburn (20 April 1786-5 December 1862) was the wife of Thomas Clabburn of Norwich (1788-1858), a shawl manufacturer. The present picture was undoubtedly painted at the request of their eldest son, William H. Clabburn, who commissioned multiple portraits of his wife, daughters and of himself from Sandys throughout the 1860s. The 17th Century Dutch costume and presentation of the sitter won the praise of the audience at the Royal Academy where it was exhibited in 1862. The Art Journal described the work as 'a vigorous example of pencilling - firm, with much life-like expression.'

Provenance: W.H. Clabburn, and by descent to
his eldest daughter Mary Louisa (Mrs Edmund Meredith Crosse) and her husband (until at least 1911).
Constance Sandys.
Anonymous sale; [Mrs Murray Usher], Sotheby's, London, 13 November 1963, lot 347 (£45).
Thence by descent.

Artist or Maker: Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys (1829-1904)

Exhibited: London, Royal Academy, 1862, no. 350.
London, Royal Academy, Winter Exhibition, 1905, no. 271, lent by Edmund Meredith Crosse.
Rome, Royal Commission International Fine-Arts Exhibition, British Section, 1911, no. 88, lent by Edmund Meredith Crosse.
Brighton, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery and Sheffield, Mappin Art Gallery, 1974, no. 85, pl. 85.
Norwich, Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Frederick Sandys and the Pre-Raphaelites, October 2001 - January 2002, no. 115.