The Marquise de Sivrac and her Son
John Hoppner, RA (London 1758 – London 1810)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1796
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
876 x 800 mm (34 1/2 x 31 1/2 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Upton House, Warwickshire
NT 446682
Caption
The sitters in this portrait have been identified by labels on copies of this picture and on its pendant depicting her husband, the Marquis. Both their children died young. The sitter’s father was Thomson Bonar (born c.1740), described as a Parisian banker and a Russian merchant, who, with his wife, was murdered by a footman with a poker in 1813. Hoppner was a portraitist who painted in the style of Reynolds. He achieved some eminence in the 1780s when he was made portrait painter to the Prince of Wales, but was eclipsed in later life by Sir Thomas Lawrence. The unusual dimensions of the canvas and awkwardness of the composition clearly indicate that the picture has been cut down.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, The Marquise de Sivrac and her Son by John Hoppner, RA, (London 1758 - London 1810), 1796. Two half-length portraits in a landscape; she, on the left, wears a pale turquoise dress with white muslin fichu, her powdered hair bound by a ribbon; her arm is round the shoulder of a small boy, who stands beside her, right, wearing a maroon velvet coat and white lace collar. The sitter’s father was Thomson Bonar (born c.1740), described as a Paris banker and a Russian merchant, who lived at Camden Place, Chislehurst (subsequently the home in exile of the Empress Eugénie), and who, with his wife, was murdered by a footman with a poker in 1813. His daughter married Charles, Marquis de Sivrac of Rieux; both their children died young. It was the daughter of de Sivrac's brother who married the Reverend Richard Stephens and in whose family the portrait remained until 1898.
Provenance
Commissioned by the husband of the sitter; thence by descent to Mrs Stephens of Belgrave Rectory, Leicester, niece of the sitter; in 1898, sold by her daughter to Agnew's, from whom it was acquired by G. Harland Peck; his sale, Christie's 25 June 1920, lot 83: bt. by [Charles] Davis on behalf of 1st Lord Bearsted; given with Upton House to the National Trust by Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted (1882 – 1948) shortly before his death in 1948
Credit line
Upton House, The Bearsted Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Verso: 19thC label on back of frame: La Marquise de Sivrac (née Bonar) and her son. Painted in 1796 (apparently transcribing a now fragmentary earlier label).
Makers and roles
John Hoppner, RA (London 1758 – London 1810), artist
References
Frankau 1903 Julia Frankau, ‘Mr. Harland Peck's Collection', Connoisseur, V, 1903, p.888, fig. p. 91 McKay and Roberts 1909 William McKay and William Roberts, John Hoppner, R.A., 2 vols., London 1909-14, p.232