ID 1071103 
Lot 58  | SIR GODFREY KNELLER (LÜBECK 1646-1723 LONDON)
Estimate value
£ 15 000 – 25 000 
Portrait of William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford (1616-1700), full-length, in garter robes
signed and dated 'G. Kneller fe 1692' (lower left)
oil on canvas, unlined
93 x 58 5⁄8 in. (236 x 149.1 cm.)
with identifying inscription 'William Rufsell the first / Duke of Bedford of that name' (lower left)
in a frame of foliate carved and pierced giltwood, applied to an ebonised subframe
Provenance
(Presumably) by descent to the sitter's nephew,
Admiral Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford (1657-1627), and by inheritance to his great-niece,
Letitia Tipping (1699-1779), wife of Samuel Sandys, 1st Baron Sandys (1695-1770), and by descent to their son,
Edwin Sandys, 2nd Baron Sandys (1726-1797), and by inheritance to his niece,
Mary, Marchioness of Downshire and 1st Baroness Sandys (1764-1836), and by descent to her second son,
Lieutenant-General Arthur Hill, 2nd Baron Sandys (1792-1860), and by inheritance to his younger brother,
Arthur Marcus Sandys, 3rd Baron Sandys (1798-1863), and by descent in the family to,
Richard Hill, 7th Baron Sandys (1931-2013), Ombersley Court, Worcestershire.
Literature
Ombersley Court Inventory, c.1750-1775, Ombersley MS., where listed in the Salon Room.
T.R. Nash, Collections for the History of Worcestershire, London, 1781-2, II, p. 224.
J. Grego, Inventory of Pictures: Portraits, Paintings, etc., Ombersley MS., 1905, where listed in the Grand Saloon.
(Presumably) G. Scott Thomson, Life in a Noble Household 1641-1700, New York, 1937, p. 297, which records 'January 1603.-Receieved from the right / honourable Earld of Bedford forty pounds due / in full for his lordship's picture in length by me, / G. KNELLER / £40 0 0.'.
ONM / 1 / 2 / 7, journal entry for a visit to Ombersley Court, 25 August 1950, Oliver Millar Archive, Paul Mellon Centre, London, p. 25.
A. Oswald, 'Ombersley Court, Worcestershire - I', Country Life, 2 January 1953, pp. 35 and 37, pl. 3.
Ombersley Court Inventory, June 1963, annotated Ombersley MS., where listed in the Saloon.
J. Douglas Stewart, Sir Godfrey Kneller and the English Baroque Portrait, Oxford, 1983, pp. 94 and 143, no. 82, pl. 43b.
Ombersley Court Catalogue of Pictures, undated, Ombersley MS., p. 22, where listed in the Saloon.
Exhibited
Birmingham, City Museum and Art Gallery, Commemorative Exhibition of the Art Treasures of the Midlands, 1934, no. 466, lent by Lord Sandys.
| Artist: | Godfrey Kneller (1646 - 1723) | 
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| Auction house category: | Paintings | 
| Artist: | Godfrey Kneller (1646 - 1723) | 
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| Auction house category: | Paintings | 
| Address of auction | CHRISTIE'S 8 King Street, St. James's SW1Y 6QT London United Kingdom | |||||
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