I have long suspected that there was another oil painting of Andrew Fuller besides the one hanging in the dining hall of Regent’s Park College, Oxford. Well, such has proven to be the case. Another Fuller painting, a portrait in oils, has recently been sold at auction and is now in the hands of a lover of Fuller’s works in the south of England. This is tremendously exciting news.
The portrait is by Samuel Medley, Jr (1769-1857), who was a Baptist layman and a member of John Rippon’s Church, had a career in the stock exchange and was one of the founders of University College, the University of London. He was also a painter, and exhibited at the Royal Academy. The painting was done in 1802 and was the basis for the frontispiece in John Ryland’s life of the Baptist divine.
The sale was in Northumbria, far from Fuller country, and raises questions naturally about how the painting came to be in that part of England.
I am deeply thankful to the new owner of the painting for contacting me, and hope in the very near future to display a picture of the portrait on this blog.