Mansion House Antiques & Fine Art has dated this 19th Century Pastel Portrait to the 1900s.
He is wearing a quality coat with white handkerchief, large buttons and white frill at the neck and the painting is presented in an oval frame, although a ribbon surmount on top of the frame has since been lost, probably due to past damage,this having been carefully epaired where the surmount would have been attached.
ABOUT THE SITTER
Gerald Ralph Desmond Browne, 1896-1952, was born on 20th December 1896, the youngest son of Valentine Charles Browne, 5th Earl of Kenmare and Hon. Elizabeth Baring.
He was educated at the Oratory School, South Kensington, Downside School, Bath and the Royal Military College Sandhurst.
He became a Major in 1st Dragoon Regiment and served in WW1 1916-1918. He was ADC to the Leiutenant-General & Governor General of Ireland in 1921.
He received an OBE in 1922. He became the 7th Earl upon the death of his brother in 1943, who had inherited it from his father in 1941.
He had never married and died on 14th Feb 1952 at which time his titles became extinct.
The painting is under its original glass and in its original 3" gilt frame, supplied ready to hang.
The stretcher bears the stamp of Lechertier Barbe Limited, Jermyn Street, Late of Regent Street.
The painting has a backing board which will be replaced, but is shown without this to show the canvas on the stretcher.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Leon John Sprinck (1862-1948), was a Russian artist, born in France, who later became a naturalised British subject.
We know that he was in the UK in 1898, at 9 Duke Street, Portland Place, London W.1, as that was the year that he married in Hampstead, Emily Margaret Macdonald (13/3/1866 - 1/2/1949) of 45 Netherhall Gardens, Hampstead.
In 1916, he is listed in Kelly's Directory as an artist at 8 Boltons Studios, Redcliffe Road, Sth.Kensington.
They had three children, two sons and a daughter.
We found online a lengthy biography on his eldest son, who was a very talented organist and music teacher, which states the following:-
'His father, Leon Sprinck, was a distinguished portrait painter from the court of the Czar of Russia who fled to London before the revolution of 1917. Donald's mother was a MacDonald from the Isle of Skye.
She was also a professional artist who specialised in miniature portraiture, examples of which Donald and his sister (Margaret Wilhelmina Woosnam nee Sprinck born 4/10/1902) still displayed in their Eastbourne homes.'
It is certainly true that Leon Sprinck was a distinguished portrait painter, as he painted many notable sitters, for example, Lady Dundas - twice, Viscount Castlerosse, Christian Beauvoir de Lisle etc. but he was in the UK from 1898, although we cannot find him in the Census of 1901, as his wife was staying with her parents with Donald on that day.
He was in the UK in 1911, the next Census year, and they were living at 19 Friern Park, North Finchley. In the 1939 Register, which has just been released, Emily was living with their daughter Margaret Woosnam, her husband, and their youngest son Hugh Leon Sprinck (born 16/9/1904) at 4 Hilltop Court, Grange Road, Croydon.
Leon doesn't appear is this Register for some reason, but he died in Croydon in 1948 at the age of 86. Margaret died the following year.
CONDITION:
Very Good Order Commensurate With Age.
MEASUREMENTS: Frame size: 29 1/2" x 25 1/2" - 74.9cm x 64.7
DELIVERY
UK Postal Courier Add £50
OUR REF 0719
Mansion House Antiques & Fine Art has dated this 19th Century Pastel Portrait to the 1900s.
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Viscount Castlerosse (1896-1952) by Leon Sprinck 19th Pastel Portrait Paintings
