Webberley Antiques

Description

Portrait of Ms Eliza Potts 1847 Chester by William Owen Harling

A superb oil on canvas in original frame by William Owen Harling (b.1813 d.1879)

Frame and painting both in excellent original condition.

This is a rare early example of Harling's work. He was a British visual artist who exhibited frequently at the Royal Academy from 1849 until 1878.

The label verso is signed by William Harling and he gives the date and place of the portrait and the name of the sitter as Ms Eliza Potts.

Eliza was born in 1809 the daughter of Henry Potts and Ann Garnet. Henry Potts was a wealthy landowner and philathropist. The Potts family had been established in Chester for centuries and Henry's house at 1 Watergate was designed by Thomas Harrison and built in 1820 on the site of the Old Black Friars Monastry.

Henry was Clerk of the Peace for the County of Chester and a principal in the legal firm of Widden, Potts and Leek which had been established in Chester since 1779. Henry also owned a country estate at Glan-yr-Afron in Denbighshire (the manor house here also designed by Harrison).

At the time of Eliza's birth the family owned numerous lands and estates and she received an excellent education and was a keen amateur botanist, collecting many specimens from close to the family estate at Moel Fammau, near Loggerheads, and from Lancashire where she spent several summers, as well as across Cheshire and North Wales. Her collections are held in the Grosvenor Museum in Chester.

Eliza was the eldest child of five and her portrait would have been an expensive commission by a renowned and improving artist of the day. Harling's works sell for many £1,000s. See Christies Lot 24, 30 June 2010, a small oil painting making £3,750


Dimensions of frame:

21 inches wide by 25 inches high.

Dimensions of portrait:

14 inches wide by 17.5 inches high.

For metric please multiply by 2.5

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