Sir William Boxall RA Double Portrait of a Young Lady

An original early 19th-century graphite drawing, Sir William Boxall RA, Double Portrait of a Young Lady.

A charming double portrait sketch by English painter and museum director Sir William Boxall RA (1800–1879). Having trained at the Royal Academy Schools, hoping to make his name as a history painter, he turned to the more lucrative genre of portraiture. This drawing is most likely a preparatory sketch for a portrait subject; the beautiful girl with downcast wide-set eyes and ringletted hair strongly resembles the sitter in an engraving after Boxall romantically titled 'The Wild Flower'.

William Boxall was a friend of William Wordsworth, whose portrait he painted, and he contributed portrait illustrations to Finden's Gallery of the Graces: A Series of Portrait Illustrations of British Poets.

In February 1866 Boxall was appointed director of the National Gallery, after which he practically gave up painting. His directorship lasted eight years, during which he oversaw the construction of Edward Middleton Barry's celebrated eastern extension. He substantially contributed to the Gallery's holdings of Dutch Golden Age paintings, and both of the Gallery's paintings by Michelangelo were bought by Boxall.

He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1851 and a full Royal Academician (RA) in 1863. He was knighted in 1867.

Provenance: given to Mary Twopenny by her cousin David at Little Casterton in 1832. David Twopenny, commoner at Oriel College, Oxford and lifelong Vicar of Stockbury in Kent, was a collector of art (a sale of his collection at Christie’s included an extensive collection of fine engravings after Turner).

On pale grey paper laid down on backing paper.