Strickland Lowry

With Leger Galleries, London, by February 1964 (as English School, 18^th century, according to a label on the reverse);

Paul Mellon (1907–1999), Pittsburgh;

His sale, London, Sotheby’s, 18 November 1981, lot 106 (as attributed to Strickland Lowry);

Where acquired. 

This trompe-l'œil depicts an engraving by William Humphrey of Nathaniel Hone’s celebrated composition The Spartan Boy, first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1775.¹ The subject is taken from Plutarch’s account of the life of Lycurgus, the legendary founder of Sparta's political order and of many of its social institutions, which relays: ‘The boys make such a serious matter of their stealing, that one of them, as the story goes, who was carrying concealed under his cloak a young fox which he had stolen,⁠ suffered the animal to tear out his bowels with its teeth and claws, and died rather than have his theft detected.’²

Hone was very fond of his children, often employing them as sitters in his portraits as is the case for The Spartan Boy, which depicts his son John Camillus Hone (1745–1836), who also features in The Piping Boy in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.³

A variant of this picture, painted on canvas, is in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.⁴ Another comparable example, similarly depicting an engraving pinned to a board, is also in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, and is considered to be a self-portrait of the artist.⁵

Note on Provenance

This painting was once part of the renowned collection of Paul Mellon, one of the greatest collectors and philanthropists of the twentieth century. In 1966, he founded the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, donating part of his collection and funding its establishment. Today, the Center holds the largest and most comprehensive collection of British art outside the United Kingdom. He also established the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London, a key institution dedicated to promoting education, research, and academic publishing in the field.

¹ A. Le Harivel, Nathaniel Hone the Elder, 1714–1784, Dublin 1992, p. 29; an autograph variant of this composition sold at Sotheby’s, London, 13 May 2005, lot 2.

² Plutarch, Plutarch's Lives with an English translation by Bernadotte Perrin, vol. I, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London 1914, pp. 261–62.

³ Inv. no. NGI.440; oil on canvas, 36.8 x 32 cm.; Le Harivel 1992, pp. 21 and 29, reproduced in colour pl. 7.

⁴ Inv. no. NGI.4007; oil on canvas, 64 x 51 cm.

⁵ Inv. no. NGI.4008; oil on canvas, 56 x 43 cm.