"Sir Charles Sedley". Oil on linen canvas, signed lower right, framed, canvas size apprx 50" x 40-1/2", 127 cm x 103 cm. This painting has been in a private residence for apprx. 15 years. It was purchased at a Cleveland Playhouse auction, where it had been donated by Mrs. Hanna (Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Fund). Prior to it's donation, it had been in storage for apprx 50 years.
The sitter: Sir Charles Sedley, of Nuttall Temple, Nottingham was the last of the baronets and was the best known member of the Sedley family. He was a Doctor of Civil Law of the University of Oxford, but he was also a political figure of some importance. He was elected member of Parliament for Nottingham, in 1747, and was re-elected in the following year. Sedley ran in the general election of 1774, having four years earlier been appointed Ranger and Keeper of his Majesty's Chase for Nottinghamshire. The artist: Kneller was born in Germany and settled in England, becomming the leading portraitist there in the late 17th century and early 18th century. He studied in Amsterdam under Bol, a pupil of Rembrandt, and later in Italy before moving to England, probably in the mid 1670's. He established himself as the dominant court and society painter by the beginning of the reign of James II (1685). Kneller was appointed Principal Painter jointly with Riley on the accession of William III and Mary II in 1689 (becoming sole bearer of the title when Riley died in 1691), was knighted in 1692, and created a baronet in 1715.
20,000/30,000 Sold $23,575.00
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