Joseph Watson, 1st Lord Manton, by John Lavery (1856-1941)

w:Joseph Watson, 1st Baron Manton (1873-1922)

oil on canvas

74 x 61 cm

signed verso: FIRST / LORD MANTON / BY / JOHN LAVERY / 1922

Sold at Bonhams, New Bond Street, London, 9 February 2011, lot 73, £4,560 gross.

A matching pair with a portrait of the sitter's wife (Lady Manton, née Claire Nickols), see File:LadyMantonBySirJohnLavery.jpg. Lady Manton, nee Claire Nickols, wife of Joseph Watson, 1st Baron Manton (d.1922), portrait by John Lavery, 31" * 26", private collection. To match portrait by same artist of Lord Manton

1923 portrait by Sir John Lavery of the jockey Joe Childs (1923), who rode several of Watson's winners trained at Manton, Wiltshire. It is unclear who commissioned the portrait

Provenance: The artist, thence by descent to his grand-daughter Ann Moira Forbes-Sempill, 20th Lady Sempill (1920–1995), elder daughter and heiress of Eileen Marion Lavery (d.1935) by her second husband (whom she married in 1919) William Francis Forbes-Sempill, 19th Lord Sempill (1893–1965). Her sale; Christie's May 1966; Private Collection, Texas, U.S.A. It was thus never owned by the sitter, who died in the year the portrait was made, or by his family. Presumably there was no enforceable legal contract between artist and sitter and the sitter's heirs refused to take delivery of the item. There was no family connection between Lavery and Watson and no apparent reason why the artist would wish to retain the portrait. In 1923 Lavery also painted a portrait of the jockey Joe Childs, who rode several of Watson's winning racehorses. It is unclear who commissioned that portrait.

art barons manton images from bonhams portrait paintings by john lavery portraits high resolution ultra high resolution paintings

1922

Christie's

https://www.bonhams.com/

public domain