527. GEORGE ROMNEY (1734-1802). AMENDMENT: PORTRAIT OF MISS CAROLINE PURLING (1754-1819).

Seated half length, wearing a pink dress with a blue and gold sash at the waist, her hair tied with an embroidered scarf, oil on canvas, in original gilt frame
73 x 60.5cm.

* NB THIS LOT NOW CONTAINS ONLY THE SINGLE PORTRAIT OF MISS PURLING. THE OTHER PORTRAIT HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN ON SPECIALIST ADVICE, PENDING FURTHER RESEARCH.

Exhibited: London, Grafton Galleries, 1900

This portrait of Miss Purling is recorded in Romney's sitter books and may be dated to the late 1770s or early 1780s.

Relatively little is known about the sitter. The Purling family's ancestral roots lay in St Helena. The sitter never married nor had issue, and it is thought that the portrait passed to her brother's daughter in c.1840. However, the Purlings' home in London was close to Romney's home in Cavendish Square and so the commission may have arisen through social introduction.

Provenance: By descent from the sitter to her brother Charles's (1748-1791) daughter, Emilia Anne (1782-1859). Emilia Anne married Hastings Nathaniel Middleton (1781-1821) in 1804; thence by direct descent in the Middleton family.

We acknowledge the expertise of Alex Kidson who has examined this picture for our consignor.