Art find excites Christie’s

Press, 11 March 1983, Page 7

Art find excites Christie’s

NZP A London An unknown early portrait by the eighteenth century painter. Thomas Gainsborough. which was discovered recently in New Zealand, has been unveiled by the London auctioneers. Christie s. The painting is expected to fetch up to £200.000 ($422,000) when it is auctioned on April 22. Its New Zealand owners have chosen to remain anonymous, but their decision to sell prompted a furious burst of action at Christie’s. Recently, a photograph of the painting, which depicts a boy and a man seated on a park bench with the sun dappling through a copse behind them, arrived at their London office. Within hours. Christie’s Australian representative was asked to go to New Zealand to meet the owners and examine the portrait. It was in London within a week. The owners also supplied Christie’s with.an elaborate family tree which purports to show that they are directly

descended from Mr and Mrs Robert Andrews, the sitters in a famous early Gainsborough portrait in the National Gallery. The unidentified sitters in this portrait are thought to be relations or Suffolk neighbours of the Andrews'. Dr John Hayes, director of the National Gallery and a Gainsborough scholar, described the painting as an amazing discovery. He dates it about 1746-47, when Gainsborough was only 20. Christie’s believes that the expected sale price may be conservative, on the evidence of other post-war auctions of early Suffolk Gainsboroughs. One. “Mr and Mrs Andrews" made £130,000 ($274,000) in 1960, and “The Gravenor Family," £280,000 ($591,000) in 1972. The new picture is a little earlier and less confident than those two paintings, but is considered extremely notable especially as it is one of only about half a dozen group portraits of Gainsborough's Suffolk period.