English School, late 17th century Portraits of Master and Miss...

Sold by Order of the Trustees of Ampleforth Abbey

English School, late 17th century
Portraits of Master and Miss Pigott

oil on canvas, a pair
each unframed: 76.5 x 64 cm.; 30⅛ x 25¼ in.
each framed: 94.6 x 82.5 cm.; 37¼ x 32½ in.
(2)

Catalogue Note:
Inscriptions on the reverse of these childrens' portraits identify them as Master and Miss Pigott, son and daughter 'of the astronomer.' Although the inscriptions appear on a fairly recent relining, they most probably reflect what was on the original canvas. They suggest that the sitters were the children of astronomer Nathaniel Pigott (1725–1804), and his wife Anna Mathurine de Bériot (1727–1792) who had five children, two of whom did not survive infancy. Their eldest son to survive was Edward Pigott (1753–1825), who also became an astronomer; his younger sister was Mathurina (b. 1768); and the youngest brother, Charles Gregory (1768–1845), changed his name to Fairfax upon inheriting Gilling Castle, Yorkshire in 1793, from his father's cousin, Anne Fairfax. Despite these traditional identifications, however, the date of these portraits – probably circa 1690 – precludes these Pigotts as possible sitters.

The portraits were presumably already housed at Gilling Castle when it was bought by William Hunter in 1904. He must have felt that gifting them to the Tasburgh Annes of Burghwallis was appropriate in light of the connection with Charles Fairfax's son, Charles Gregory Fairfax (1796–1871), who married Mary Tasburgh Anne in 1837, or through his sister, Lavinia Barnes (d. 1885).

Provenance:
William Hunter (1848–1923), Gilling Castle, Yorkshire, 1904;

By whom given to Michael Anne, Burghwallis Hall, Yorkshire;

Thence by descent to his son, George Anne, Burghwallis Hall, Yorkshire;

By whom given to Gilling Castle, Yorkshire, 1942;

Transferred to Ampleforth Abbey, Yorkshire, in recent years.