Strawberry Hill need £25k to save this Hogarth (!)
March 24 2022
Picture: Private Collection
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Strawberry Hill Trust have launched an appeal to raise £25,000 to complete their acquisition of William Hogarth's portrait of Horace Walpole.
Fortunately, the trust has already managed to raise the majority of the £230,000 required to purchase the work. They have until 14th April 2022 to scrape-together the remaining sum.
According to the trust's press release:
This portrait is of exceptional interest for two reasons - it is the earliest surviving oil portrait of Walpole, and a rare and significant example of Hogarth’s early mature pictorial work. It also is the earliest-known commissioned picture of an identifiable sitter by Hogarth and his first-known portrait of a child.
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£230,000 really does seem like an absolute bargain for a painting this important and beautiful. Fingers crossed they will manage it!
