Lot 1512
THOMAS BEACH (1738-1806)
PORTRAIT OF JOHN HELYAR OF SEDGEHILL, AGED 15
Half length, wearing a blue coat and white jabot, his right hand upon a cane, oil on canvas
74.5 x 63cm.
Provenance: By direct descent in the family of the sitter
Literature: Elise S. Beach, `Thomas Beach - A Dorset Portrait Painter` (London, 1934), ref.155 (p.63).
Beach painted a dozen portraits of the Helyar family of Coker Court, Yeovil, in the years 1768-1769. Mrs Helyar's pocket book records that, on April 18th, 1769, "The Painter came down." Beach also painted Mrs Michel (at Dewlish) and Maria Phelips (at Montacute) on the same visit. It is thought that Beach painted only about twenty portraits in the entire decade. (Beach, ibid., p.6). The Sedgehill reference relates to further land in Wiltshire also owned by the Helyar family in the late 18th Century.
