Harrington Mann

[Portrait of Dorothy Duveen]
1864-1937
signed 'HARRINGTON MANN' (lower left)
oil on canvas
30¼ x 25 3/8 in.
Price Realized £8,400

Dorothy was the only child of Joseph Duveen, perhaps the greatest art dealer of the early 20th Century. Knighted in 1919, he was created Baron Duveen of Millbank in 1933 for his philanthropic activities, which included building the Duveen Galleries at the British Museum to house the Elgin Marbles, and the creation of a new wing at the Tate. He made his fortune by famously noticing that 'Europe has a great deal of art, and America has a great deal of money'. He sold pictures from impoverished European aristocrats to Americans such as Frick, Mellon, Hearst and Rockefeller. Bernard Berenson, the most learned art historian of the period, supported Duveen's attributions, and catalogued each of his pictures.

Although born in Glasgow, and a member of the New English Art Club, Harrington Mann established a portrait practice that spanned the Atlantic. After moving to London in 1900 he also kept a house in New York.