SIR WILLIAM COLDSTREAM (BRITISH, 1908-1987)

SIR WILLIAM COLDSTREAM (BRITISH, 1908-1987)
Copy of 'Marriage of Isaac and Rebecca' by Claude Lorraine
oil on canvas
210.3 x 301 cm. (83 x 118 1/2 in.)
Painted in 1930-31
(unframed)

Provenance
Mrs Hall
Sale; Christie's, London, 1974, where purchased by the family of the present owner

Literature
Bruce Laughton, The Euston Road School: A Study in Objective Painting, Scolar Press, Aldershot, 1986, pp.43-3., fig.21,22
Bruce Laughton, William Coldstream, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2004, pp.20-22, ill.fig.9
Peter Rumley, William Coldstream: Catalogue Raisonne, Sansom & Company, Bristol, 2018, cat.17

PLEASE NOTE THIS WORK IS VIEWING BY APPOINTMENT ONLY

In October 1930, William Coldstream received a commission from the widow of a Stafford industrialist to paint a replica of Claude Lorrain's The Marriage of Isaac and Rebecca, which is housed in the National Gallery. The commission was funded through a collection from employees at Mr. Hall's business, who collectively raised £30. Coldstream was paid £40 for the painting. Coldstream painted the work from memory and black-and-white photographs of Lorrain's smaller original piece in the National Gallery. It was later noted that Coldstream would not paint on such a large scale again.

We are grateful to Catherine Lampert for her assistance cataloguing the present lot.