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James Digman Wingfield (British, 1800-1872), Eight Oil-on-Canvas Panels, ca. 1866, signed and dated in self-portrait lower right, mounted within an English walnut double-sided screen, overall, h. 83-1/2", w. 106-1/2". Provenance: Estate of the Artist, Messrs. Christie, Manson & Wood, London, July 13, 1872, lot 199; George Richards Burnett, Esquire (1823-1915). Illustrated: Phillips, Betty Lou. Villa Decor. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2002, p.102. This rare screen, comprised of eight panels and thirty-two pictures titled in tromp-l'oeil frames, is as illustrious as its history. It was featured in Villa Decor in 2000 as part of a prominent New Orleans furniture collection, and it was one of the four screens in the studio of James Digman Wingfield at the time of his death. It is the only known screen by Wingfield to come to auction since it was sold in the artist's estate auction in July, 1872 by Messrs. Christie, Manson and Wood (now Christie's) to George Richards Burnett, an English squire in the London banking insurance business. Burnett, an avid art collector, consigned and purchased hundreds of paintings through Christie's during the latter part of the 19th century. In addition to Wingfields, Burnett's collection included Constables, Turners, Bonheurs, Velazquezs and Israels. The screen's stacked arrangement of paintings in columns and rows was prototypical of 19th-century Salon-style exhibitions, and can be seen throughout Wingfield's famed interiors of Hampton Court Palace, such as "Schonheitsgalerie (Beauty Gallery)," 1849 and "the Cartoon Gallery," 1840-1850. Divided by subjects and themes, the rows on the double-sided screen are an homage to the English courts and 17th-century Baroque masters, as well as a celebration of Wingfield's oeuvre within this tradition. The portraits of women that line the top rows are not only reproductions of Sir Peter Lely's "Windsor Beauties" that were displayed at Hampton Court Palace, but they are also reproduced in Wingfield's painting of the Palace's female portrait gallery. The second and third rows, largely painted by Wingfield, present another intertextual assortment of historical and fictive personages and views of London, such as "Amy Robsart" - the ill-fated wife of Lord Dudley", "Belinda" - after poet Alexander Pope's celebrated beauty, and "Rehearsal" and "Beau"- after two garden views of Hampton Court. Equally telling is Wingfield's signed and dated self-portrait in the dress of a 17th-century master inserted in the fourth row among other period master portraits including: Titian, Murillo, Rubens, van Dyck, Dobson, Gainsborough and Reynolds. As this screen demonstrates, Wingfield, an active member of the Royal Academy, achieved much recognition in his life for his historical landscapes and interiors. A screen strikingly similar to this one was purchased by Colnaghi, a preeminent London gallery, at Christie's June 27, 1863 sale for an impressive 335 guineas, the equivalent of roughly 167,000 British pounds by today's standard. The Art Journal described it as a "series of thirty-two pictures by J. D. Wingfield, including sixteen original compositions, views of Hampton Court, with historical subjects..." that featured Lely's courtly beauties and works after the same 17th-century masters portrayed in the fourth row on this lot. Given the screen's illustrious history, shrouded for almost a century in mystery, it is a stunning example of an academic artist paying tribute to the history of art as well as immortalizing himself in a decorative object. References: The Art Journal. Sept. 1, 1863, p. 184; Christie, Manson & Wood Auction Notice. Athenaeum2332 (July 6): 1872, p. 3; James, Ralph N. Painters and Their Works: A Dictionary of Great Artists Who Are Not Now Alive.London: Upcott Gill & Country Printing, 1896, p. 312; Redford, George. Art Sales: A History of Sales of Pictures and Other Works of Art, vol. 2. London: Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., 1888, p. 132.


  • Condition: In generally good, professionally restored condition. Structurally sound. The frame with shotgun hinges exhibits typical scattered scuffs and scratches as well as a small patch at upper corner of one panel. The fillet exhibits minor rubbing to gilding and scattered small losses. The "green side" has thin, molded wood filler strips/trim between the frame and fillet. Some of these are missing or loose (please see detail #3 on website for the worst case example of this). All of the above consistent with age. Paintings: Scattered abrasions and minor losses to paint surfaces of several panels. Evidence of past restoration: old repairs, areas of inpainting throughout, most evident on the green ground and the mid and upper images on these panels. Colors maintain pigment intensity. The overall effect of this rare and unusual screen is that of a typical well-appointed 19th-century English salon. The detailed panels of Old Master paintings, combined with Wingfield's original compositions of historical scenes, make the screen an incredible tribute to art history and the art of collecting.

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December 4, 2015 1:00 PM CST
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