MISS SUSANNAH ELIZABETH WATCHORN, c.1840

Two Important Private Collections: Modern / Traditional
Melbourne
8 December 2021
25

MID NINETEENTH CENTURY TASMANIAN SCHOOL

MISS SUSANNAH ELIZABETH WATCHORN, c.1840

oil on canvas

92.0 x 71.0 cm

This lot is accompanied by the ring and prayer book depicted in the painting.
The prayer book is inscribed [Mrs] ‘S. E Waterhouse / January 1840’

Estimate: 
$6,000 – $9,000
Sold for $20,864 (inc. BP) in Auction 66 - 8 December 2021, Melbourne
Provenance

Private collection
Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 20 June 1969, lot 169 (as 'attributed to Benjamin Duterrau, Susan Watchhorn’)
Private collection, Adelaide
Thence by descent
Private collection, Adelaide

Literature

Buscombe, E., Artists in Early Australia and Their Portraits, Eureka Research, Sydney, 1979, [attributed to Frederick Strange (1807 – 1873)]
Attributed to Benjamin Duterrau by Leonard Joel in 1969 and Paul Paffen in 1998 noting Duterrau painted at least five oil portraits of the Methodist Minister, the Rev. Mr. John Waterhouse, father-in-law of the sitter, as in: A catalogue of the entire collection of pictures, casts, and artists’ materials the property of the late Benjamin Duterreau [sic], Esquire, The whole of which will be submitted to Unreserved Competition, by Mr. Elliston, on Wednesday next, 27th August, 1851, at Mr. Robin Hood’s picture gallery, Liverpool Street, the sale commences at 1 o’clock precisely, H. & C. Best, Printers, “Courier” Office, Collins Street, Van Diemen’s Land, 1851, p. 5