Lot 75
Attributed to SIR WILLIAM BEECHEY (British 1753-1839)
Portrait of Lady Georgiana Bertie and her son Charles – circa 1835
Oil on canvas
Inscribed mid right “Lady Georgiana Bertie Wife of Frederic Bertie”
49 inches x 39 inches (124.5 cm x 99 cm)
Estimate:  $10,000 - 15,000   € 7,400 - 11,100

Price Realized: $16,800.00

Lady Georgina Anne Emily Kerr Bertie was the daughter of Vice-Admiral Lord Mark Robert Kerr and Charlotte MacDonnell Countess of Antrim. She married the Reverend Hon. Frederic Bertie on October 17, 1825. Frederic was the son of Willoughby Bertie, 4th Earl of Abingdon and Charlotte Warren. He was the rector at Albury, Oxfordshire, England. Their son Charles MacDonnell Bertie was born on February 17, 1829. - Sir William Beechey was a distinguished English portrait painter of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Beechey entered the RA Schools in 1772 and first exhibited at the RA four years later. In 1787 his portraits were rejected by the Academy, but despite this setback, Beechey became an Associate in 1793, the year of his appointment as portrait painter to Queen Charlotte , and an Academician in 1798 . He was knighted in the same year, probably as a reward for his enormous painting A Review of the Horse Guard with King George III and The Prince of Wales (1798 ; London, Royal Coll.). His diploma work was a further portrait of The Prince of Wales (1798; London, RA). He continued to receive royal patronage until the 1830's when he painted Queen Adelaide (c. 1831; London, NPG), as well as famous and fashionable persons. Beechey was a conscientious painter noted for his craftsmanship and the accuracy of his likenesses. His own son, Frederick William Beechey (1796-1856), was a Royal Naval officer eventually attaining the rank of Rear-Admiral, noted for his exploration of the Bering Strait in 1826. Perhaps it is this Naval connection that links the sitter, whose father was at the time a Royal Naval Admiral, to the artist Beechey.