Lot 939: English 19th C. Painting: Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Wanstead

English School oil on canvas landscape painting. Figures walk along the grounds of the church, which is fronted by an iron-fenced graveyard and surrounded by trees, farmland, and smaller buildings, all under a partly cloudy sky. Unsigned. 21 1/2 in. H x 31 1/2 in. W. Unframed. Second quarter 19th century. Note: The Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Wanstead, was designed by Thomas Hardwick. It is prized as a virtually unaltered example of 18th century Georgian architecture in what is now Greater London and is the only Grade One listed building in the borough of Redbridge. The Wanstead parish was first mentioned in 1208 and the land the church is on was owned or frequently used by Henry VII, James I, and Queen Elizabeth I. (When Mary Tudor was proclaimed Queen in Norwich and returned to London to oust Lady Jane Grey, her sister Elizabeth rode out to meet her at Wanstead). The Wanstead property was ultimately purchased by Josiah Child, governor of the East India Company, and the existing manor house on the property, Wanstead House, was rebuilt into a fashionable and larger “country” seat. In 1787, a petition was laid before Parliament to replace the original decaying worship structure on the property with the Portland stone church building seen in this painting and still standing today. The Wanstead House mansion met a different fate. It was auctioned in 1822 to pay the gambling debts of owner William Pole Tynley Long Wellesley, and was demolished the following year. 

PROVENANCE: Private Middle Tennessee Collection. 

CONDITION: A few small dents to canvas – 3 in the upper right quadrant, 1 lower right. Scattered spots of exfoliation, mainly to the lower edge and the lower left corner. Scattered small abrasions and grime.