1) Abraham Rawlinson, of Grassyard Hall, Canton, near Lancaster; 2) Ellenor Godsalve, wife of Abraham Rawlinson
Various
- Art Funded
- 2009
- Dimensions
- Each: 76 x 63.5 cm
- Vendor
- Private collection
A pair of portraits of Abraham Rawlinson and his wife commissioned by Rawlinson's daughter and her husband William Lindow, a notorious Lancaster slave-trader.
The portrait of Abraham Rawlinson has confidently been attributed to George Romney, while the portrait of Ellenor is by an unknown artist, perhaps James Cranke. Rawlinson was one of the most powerful merchants trading with the West Indies in 18th-century Lancaster. He was a plantation owner, and a principal importer of mahogany into Lancaster, whose business profited from the transatlantic slave trade.
Provenance
William Lindow, 1772; by descent through the Rawlinson family to Sarah Cowell Bevan, ?1855;...; Galerie-Metropol, Austria; private collection, 2008; Sotheby's, 2008, unsold. The work has been vetted by the Art Loss Register and the Metropolitan Polic