Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this piece to the 1700s.
This is an extremely charming portrait of a wealthy young girl.
.. a cockatoo.. these were expensive and exotic birds, thus displaying the wealth of the family. Also, in portraiture and contemporary literature, parrots, which could be trained to speak and perform tricks, were used as examples of the love of learning to which children should aspire. The sitter holds cherries which were a symbol of future fruitfulness and and also associated with the Virgin Mary.
ROBERT BYNG (1666 - 1720) was born in Wiltshire, but is buried in Oxford where he died in 1720, having lived there since before 1714.
He was a pupil of, and very strongly influenced by, Sir Godfrey Kneller (Principal Painter to the King and the most distinguished Baroque portraitist in England). Byng was especially noted for his portraits of children.
Byng's earliest dated portraits are c.1697; one of his younger brothers, Edward, was drapery painter to Kneller and his principal assistant.
SIZE: 31.5 x 29 x 2 inches.
PROVENANCE: A long established Private Collection in the North of England (deceased estate)
Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this piece to the 1700s.
Roy and nadine precious: specialists in portraiture from the 16th to the 20th century. Established in 1972.
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Portrait of a Young Girl with a Parrot C.1700, Circle of Robert Byng.
