Sold....portrait of Matilda Marryat 1843; by Richard Buckner.

Oil on board in period gilt frame. Signed and inscribed 'Rome' lower left.

This beautiful portrait of the Hon. Matilda Marryat and her pet spaniel was painted in Rome in 1843 and is a fine example of Buckner's work, being not only an image of a lovely young woman but also a charming portrait of her spaniel and the items on the table are a still life.

Buckner's great talent is demonstrated by his use of, to use a photographic term, 'soft focus'. Matilda's face is the most 'in focus' part of the painting, the items on the table and the spaniel less so, and the background is merely suggested in an almost abstract way...the wall, column and view from the balcony are depicted with a painterly delight in the use of paint in a very free way.

All this causes us to focus on the sitter's face and only then to become aware of, and enjoy, the rest of the painting.

"His best work has a breathtaking quality" ('The Dictionary of Portrait Painters in Britain' by Brian Stewart and Mervyn Cutten.)

THE HON. MATILDA SOMERSET, (born in 1815, died in 1890) , was the daughter of General Lord Robert Edward Henry Somerset and the Hon. Louisa Augusta Courtenay, the daughter of William Courtenay, 2nd Viscount Courtenay of Powderham Castle and Frances Clack.

Lord Somerset was born on 19 December 1776 at Caldicot Castle, Monmouthshire, Wales. He was the son of Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort and Elizabeth Boscawen.

Matilda married Horace Marryat, the famous travel writer, and brother of Captain Frederick Marryat, the naval officer, novelist, and a contemporary and acquaintance of Charles Dickens, noted today as an early pioneer of the sea story.

RICHARD BUCKNER (1812 - 1883) was an English painter. He first worked from a studio at his family home in Rumboldswhyke, near Chichester.

After a short spell in the army, he went to Rome where he studied under Giovanni Battista Canevari (1789-1876). He set up a studio there and quickly earned a reputation not only for his elegant portraits (e.g. Lady Charlotte Guest and her Daughter, priv. col., see Stewart and Cutten, p. 36) but also for his delicate watercolours of Italian peasants.

His work attracted the attention of important patrons including Queen Victoria and her husband Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Consort; Edward, Prince of Wales; Adelaide, Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen ( fl 1860s), and William Alexander, 11th Duke of Hamilton.

Maas considers him one of the most cultivated of Victorian portrait painters "He was one of the few portrait painters of the 19th century whose work could hold its own when hung in country houses alongside the work of Reynolds and Gainsborough".

SIZE: 34.5 x 29 inches inc. frame.

PROVENANCE: The Collection of a Titled Lady, East Sussex.

VERSO: Old handwritten labels:-

"Matilda Marryat, daughter of Ld. ** Somerset. d.1890 aged 85."

"Mrs. Horace Marryat painted by R. Buckner at Rome AD 1843."