David Colyear, Viscount Milsington (1736 - 1756)
Nathaniel Hone the elder, RA (Dublin 1718 – London 1784)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1755 (signed and dated)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
762 x 622 mm (30 x 24 ½ in)
Place of origin
Great Britain
Order this imageCollection
Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire
NT 108805
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, David Colyear, Viscount Milsington (1736 - 1756) by Nathaniel Hone the elder, RA (Dublin 1718 – London 1784), signed, possibly strengthened over repaint, centre right: NHone / 1755 [N and H in ligature). A half-length portrait of a young man, turned to the right, gazing at the spectator, his left hand resting on unidentifiable surface. In crimson coat, white shirt and stock, frilled cuff. Hone was chiefly a miniature painter until 1760, but also painted very competent portraits in oil as early as 1741. His easy and elegant style as a portraitist, of which this is a good example, has a touch of slightly Frenchified Rococo brightness that has let some of his works to be attributed to Gainsborough. Viscount Milsington was the eldest son of Charles Colyear, 2nd Earl of Portmore and brother of Caroline Colyear, Lady Scarsdale, died in 1756 before succeeding to the title. Recorded in Lady Scarsdale's bedchamber from 1769 onwards. Another (the prime?) version, dated 1753, belongs to collateral descendants of his other sister, Juliana, who married Henry Dawkins of Standlynch, now in private collection at Penrhyn Castle.
Provenance
By descent in the Dawkins family, until included in the posthumous sale of the Reverend E.H. Dawkins, Christie’s, 28 February 1913, lot 25, when bought by Agnew's on behalf of Lord Curzon. (Although many - but not, apparently, all - of the pictures acquired by Curzon from the Dawkins sale in 1913 were bid for by Cartwright rather than Agnew, there seems little doubt that this picture was acquired then, and has not always been at Kedleston. For one thing, the detailed label on the back is uncharacteristic of the pictures at Kedleston, and its wording suggests the preoccupation of the Colyears (and, after their extinction, of the Dawkinses) rather than the Curzons. For another, although a portrait of an (unspecified) Lord Milsingtown (without dimensions) by Hone is recorded in Lady Scarsdale’s Bedroom from 1769 to 1802 it disappears thereafter. Nor can it be identified with the portrait of a Lord Milsingtown , measuring 29½ x 24 in, recorded in the Wardrobe in 1849, 1856 and 1861 since this was anonymous (the ‘Hone’ given as the author of the portrait of the Hon. Juliana Curzon two pictures above would have been repeated before Lord Milsington’s portrait, as elsewhere in these catalogues if he had been thought to be its author), which the signature and label could never have allowed in the case of the present picture.);
Credit line
Kedleston Hall, The Scarsdale Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and transferred to The National Trust in 1987)
Marks and inscriptions
Recto: label - painted - bottom of frame - black text on gold - VISCOUNT MILSINGTON BROTHER OF THE 1ST BARONNESS SCARSDALE BY N. HONE 1755 Verso: Label: inscribed in ink on back of frame: Lord Milsington / by Hone 1755 Verso: 19th century label on back of frame, inscribed: David Viscount Milsington. Born 1736. Died 1756. Buried in the Portmore vault at Weybridge. Second son of Charles 2nd Earl of Portmore and brother of the 1st Lady Scarsdale. Verso: Inscribed in pencil on back of frame: No. 15, State Dressing Room
Makers and roles
Nathaniel Hone the elder, RA (Dublin 1718 – London 1784), artist