The Dutton Family
Unknown
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1920 - 1930
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1003 x 1219 mm (39 1/2 x 48 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Hinton Ampner, Hampshire
NT 1530083
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, The Dutton Family, after Johann Zoffany, RA (Frankfurt am Main 1733 - Kew 1810); unknown artist, probably painted in England, 1920-30. The family playing cards, in a room with a Turkish carpet, Louis XV kingwood table and landscape pictures.
Full description
This painting is based on an original commissioned by James Lenox Dutton (1712-1776), Sherborne Park, Gloucestershire, from the German artist Johann Zoffany (1733-1810). The painting, known as The Dutton Family, depicts James and his wife Jane Bond (c.1712-1776), their son James Dutton, 1st Baron Sherborne (1744-1820) and daughter Jane Dutton (1753-1800). A conversation piece, informally portraying the family playing cards, it was painted at a time when someone close to the family has died - the parents are dressed in full black, and the siblings in paler, mourning clothes. The original Zoffany painting was sold in 1929 by Ralph Dutton’s uncle the 6th Baron Sherborne, at Christie's London, June 28, 1929 (lot 72), where acquired for 7000 gns by Daniel Haddock Farr. In 1930 it was included in a London exhibition Conversation Pieces curated by one of Ralph’s friends, Sacheverell Sitwell, and the copy may have been made at this point for display at Hinton Ampner. The Zoffany painting was subsequently in the collections of the 2nd and 4th Viscount Bearsted of Upton House, and in 2023 was acquired from a private European collection by the Cleveland Museum of Art Inv. 2023.122.
Provenance
By descent; bequeathed by Ralph Dutton, 8th Lord Sherborne (1898–1985)
Credit line
Hinton Ampner, The Ralph Dutton Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Unknown, painter after Johann Zoffany, RA (Frankfurt am Main 1733 - Kew 1810), artist
References
Praz 1971 Mario Praz, Conservation Pieces, 1971, p. 101, fig. 60 on p. 99 Sitwell 1936 Sacheverell Sitwell, Conversation Pieces, A Survey of English Domestic Portraits and their Painters, London, 1936, pp. 24-25, 34, 36-37, 40, 43, 46, illus. facing p. 24 Stirling, A. M. W. (Anna Maria Wilhelmina), 1865-1965 Coke of Norfolk and his friends : MCMVIII. [1908]., Vol I, p.132 and facing plate Johan Zoffany RA Society Observed, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 27 th October 2011 - 12 February 2012 and Royal Academy of Arts, London, 10th March - 10th June 2012, cat. no 75 for original