THE CLOUD, JOHN LINNELL, SNR

Sam Mendel, Manley Hall;
Baron Albert Grant (sale, 28th April 1877, lot 123);
With Agnew’s London.
From whom presumably acquired by Sir Joseph B. Robinson (1840-1929).
[Sir Joseph Robinson lived in South Africa and London, but his pictures were kept in London, at Dudley House until 1908, but thereafter in storage.  He consigned them all to sale at Christie’s in London in 1923, but turned up on the eve of the sale, already infirm and in a wheelchair, and fell in love with his pictures once again, and raised all the reserve prices, so that most of them were unsold] Sir Joseph Robinson sale, London, Christie’s, 23 May 1923, lot 58, unsold; By inheritance to his daughter Ida (died 1961), who in 1921 had married Count Natale Labia (1877-1936), Italian Minister Plenipotentiary to the Union of South Africa; By inheritance to Count Natale (“Luccio”) Labia (1924-2016); By inheritance to his daughter Antonia, the current owner.

Exhibited:
London, RA, 1863, no.472;London, RA, 1958, no.75;Cape Town, 1959, no.93;SANG, on loan.

There is a sketch of this composition, titled The Cloud, in the Linnell Sketchbook, dated 1863. The Sketchbook also notes a smaller oil version and a watercolour drawing.