Richard Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn of Penrhyn (1739 – 1808)
Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (Plympton 1723 - London 1792)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1761
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
740 x 610 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Penrhyn Castle, Gwynedd
NT 1422012
Caption
Richard Pennant may have commissioned this portrait on the occasion of his election to MP for Petersfield, Hampshire, in 1761. The son of a Liverpool merchant, he went on to represent that city in the House of Commons from 1767. In the ensuing decades, as debate around Abolition gained momentum, Pennant used his political platform to lobby in favour of slavery. In contrast to his sitter, Reynolds is understood to have supported Abolition. His opinion is recorded in an account by the abolitionist Thomas Clarkson, and the artist is also named as a subscriber to the 1791 edition of Ottobah Cugoano's 'Thoughts and sentiments on the evil of slavery'.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Richard Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn of Penrhyn (1739 – 1808) by Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (Plympton 1723 - London 1792), c. 1761. A head and shoulders portrait of a young man, within a feigned oval and against a brown background, facing left, wearing a grey powdered wig, a black cravat, a white shirt with lace collar and a blue velvet suit. Richard Pennant was the second son of John Pennant, a Liverpool merchant, and Bonella Hodges, an heiress from the British colony of Jamaica. He served as MP for Petersfield and Liverpool between 1761 and 1790. Pennant owned six Jamaican plantations and invested their profits into his Caernarfonshire agricultural estates, establishing the Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Port Penrhyn. As an MP he used his position to act as a vocal and influential opponent of the abolition of slavery.
Provenance
By descent to Hugh Napier Douglas Pennant, 4th Baron Penrhyn of Llangedai (1894 – 1949), who left Penryhn and its estates to his niece, Lady Janet Marcia Rose Pelham (1923 - 1997), who with her husband John Charles Harper, thereupon assumed the name of Douglas Pennant, and in 1951 made over the castle and part of its contents in lieu of death-duties to HM Treasury (from the estate of Hugh, 4th Baron Penrhyn (1894 – 1949), which transferred them to the National Trust; accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax (estate of Lady Janet Marcia Rose Douglas Pennant (d. 1997) and allocated to the National Trust in 2004.
Makers and roles
Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (Plympton 1723 - London 1792), artist