Monthly Archives: May 2017

Art at Auction: Sir Gordon Drummond, G.C.B. by Agricola

Update, 4/2025:

Mention of Agricola and his portrait of Sir Gordon Drummond. Excerpt from [Lady Murray or Lady Clanwilliam] (c. 1821) A Journal of a Tour in Italy. London: privately printed, pp. 9-10.

“In 1821, Canova introduced us to Agricola, a young artist whom he had pensioned and brought forward in consequence of the great genius he shewed for painting. He began by being a pupil of Landi; but on the return of the pictures from Paris, he was so struck with the superiority of the old masters, that he employed himself for eighteen months in making drawings and studies from them, and has formed a style in which he stands unrivalled. It has much of the clearness and transparency of Bronzino, with the correctness of drawing for which Raphael is so remarkable; in short, the spirit of the painters of the fifteenth century seems to be revived in him. In his studio, which was at the top of the Palazzo Giustiniani, there was a charming portrait of Signora Perticari, the daughter of Monti. She wears a turban, and is dressed in black velvet, with long slashed sleeves, and a white tucker: her large hazel eyes are full of expression, her complexion fair and fresh-coloured; her hands are well drawn, and she has rings on her fingers: the back-ground is a clear light brown.

A portrait of the present Queen of Denmark, then Hereditary Princess, reminded me of Vandyck. She is fair, with blue eyes, her hair dressed low behind, and her dress black, with full sleeves: she is sitting in a chair, and has an air of calm dignity.

A large picture, the figures the size of life, represents Raphael painting the Fornarina kneeling as she does in the Transfiguration, and Giulio Romano standing behind him.

There was a portrait of Sir Gordon Drummond in uniform, and some fine drawings from the Madonna di Foligno.

Agricola was then five-and-twenty, and was devoted to his art, and delighted in every thing relating to it. We agreed in our admiration of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Domenichino.”

https://books.google.com/books?pg=PA10&dq=agricola+%22gordon+drummond%22&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&id=UxKsyt7s5nYC#v=onepage&q=agricola%20%22gordon%20drummond%22&f=false

Nye & Co. of Bloomfield, NJ, recently had an auction that included this unsigned painting, Lot 39,

http://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/oil-on-canvas-general-gordon-drummond-DC947D39D2

Drummondpic

Drummondplate

The plate below the painting is hard to read but it says,”General Sir Gordon Drummond, G.C.B. D. 1854 / Robert McInnes, British / 1801-1886″

There is a short biography of General Drummond in “A Military History of Perthshire / 1660-1902” edited by the Marchioness of Tullibardine, pp. 486-492,

After page 486 is a reproduction of this painting:

Drummond2

But the painting is listed as not by Robert McInnes but by Filippe (Filippo) Agricola, 1776-1857,[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filippo_Agricola].  Agricola worked mainly in Rome and usually painted religious pictures.  After General Drummond retired from the British army in 1816, he would often visit Italy so it must have been on one of these trips that he met the artist.

General Drummond’s daughter married the 2nd earl of Effingham in whose family it descended.  It is possible, though, that McInnes made this copy of the Agricola painting and the original is still in the Effingham family.  The book reproduction of the Agricola painting is not very good so as to make a close comparison difficult.