‘The Harpsichord’ by Robert James Gordon RBA (1849-1895).

The painting – which depicts a flautist accompanying a young woman at Pascal Taskin’s famous chinoiserie harpsichord – is signed by the artist and was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1891.

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Pascal-Joseph Taskin (1723-1793) was instrument maker to King Louis XVI of France and the ornate japanned harpsicord featured in the painting is thought to have been made for Marie Antoinette’s eight-year-old daughter Marie Thérèse. The Taskin harpsichord is now in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London having been purchased from a Parisian dealer in 1869 by the museum’s first director Henry Cole (1808-1882).

Between 1871 and his death in 1895, Robert James Gordon exhibited 22 paintings at the Royal Academy (‘The Harpsicord’ being one of those), and 88 with the Royal Society of British Artists where he was elected a full member in 1876. Gordon's membership of the R.B.A. predated the appointment of James Whistler as President in 1886 but as the correspondence of Whistler confirms, James Gordon’s work was in harmony with its President in that it sought to “render natural beauty by methods as legitimate and as personal as those of Mr. Whistler”.

Robert James Gordon also exhibited at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham, Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, the Royal Scottish Academy, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, and Manchester City Art Gallery.

Dimensions: (framed) 122cm x 104cm (48” x 41”).
Dimensions: (canvas only) 105cm x 87cm (41¼” x 34¼”).
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Provenance: 1891; Royal Academy Exhibition, London (cat. No.268). Thence in private UK collection.
Presentation: Bespoke gold metal leaf frame.
Condition: Very good. Professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.