Lot 1312 Dα

The present work is quite likely to be the portrait of Miss Lucy Lowndes, daughter of the wealthy London merchant Thomas Lowndes, which was long believed to be lost. In Beechey's account book, which was published in William Robert's monograph on the artist in 1907, we read that Thomas Lowndes paid £63 for a portrait of his daughter on 9th August 1824. "The Connoisseur - An Illustrated Magazine for Collectors" 1916 contains a detailed description of a portrait corresponding closely to the present work: "The face of the sitter appears to have been carefully drawn on the canvas before the painter commenced work with his brushes, a practice introduced by Lawrence and quite opposed to that of Reynolds and his contemporaries, who began by sketching in their subjects in pigment. The portrait of Miss Lowndes exemplifies both the advantages and drawbacks of the later style. The drawing of the features is more correct, and the colour, perhaps, more pure, but these gains have been won by a corresponding loss in tonal values, and in the richness and impasto of the colour. The latter is colder than that of Beechey's earlier period, blue and lilac being the predominant tints. The lady is dressed in a white gown, partially red with a lilac cloak, the lining of which is blue. The last-named colour is repelled in various ribbons and the lace edged cap. The picture is an adequate and typical example of Beechey's later style, the modelling of the face and the flesh-tones being rendered with great care."