ATTRIBUTED TO ROSALBA CARRIERA (ITALIAN 1673-1757)PORTRAIT OF ARTHUR BARNARDISTON, AGED 6, WITH A SPANIELPastel44.5 x 34.5cm (17½ x 13½ in.)Provenance: Possibly Mary Barnardiston at Hayes House, MiddlesexBrought to Weston Hall in 1744 Thence by descent at Weston Hall. Literature:Sir George Sitwell, A brief history of Weston Hall, Northamptonshire, and of the families that possessed it, London, privately printed 1927, p. 54.Catalogue Note:This charming portrait depicts Arthur, the only son of Arthur Barnardiston (d. 1737) and his second wife, Mary (née Jennens, d. 1788), heir to the Brightwell Hall estate, with his pet spaniel. This child was born twelve days after the death of his father. Mary Barnardiston and her children and step-children went to live at Hayes House, Middlesex, following her husband's death, and in the winter season, lived at Bedford Row, London. In 1742, young Arthur was entitled to a real estate of £1,700 yearly and approximately £6,000 from his father's personal estate (Sir George Sitwell, A brief history of Weston Hall, Northamptonshire, and of the families that possessed it, London, privately printed 1927, p. 54). However, tragically, in February 1743, he died prematurely of measles (ibid., 54-55).Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757) was an Italian artist renowned for her sympathetic portraits worked in pastels. She travelled widely throughout Europe, and at the height of her fame was a prolific artist, painting Louis XV as a young man, the German Emperor Charles VI, and young British aristocrats on the Grand Tour in Italy. 'Her surviving works display a lightness of touch and finesse often found in the very best 18th-century miniaturists, while the use of pale, delicate colours and clear, uniform light often seem to catch imperceptible changes in her sitters' expressions' (Oxford Art Online. Accessed 16 August 2021). Medium Pastel