Portrait of John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville (1690-1763)
attributed to Isaac Gosset (1713 - 1799)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
c. 1759
Materials
Wax
Measurements
220 x 165 x 23 mm
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Ham House, Surrey
NT 1139658
Summary
Wax; portrait of John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville (1690-1763); attributed to Isaac Gosset (1713-99); c. 1759. In profile, facing to left, wearing the badge and sash of the Order of the Garter. In a rectangular frame with an oval reveal.
Full description
A wax portrait of John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville (1690-1763), in profile, facing to left. He is bewigged and in court dress, wearing the badge of the Order of the Garter with the blue sash of the Order across his left shoulder. In a rectangular frame with an oval reveal. On the reverse of the frame is a label with a handwritten inscription ‘John Carteret, 2nd Lord Carteret & Earl Granville father of Lady Grace Carteret.’ John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville was a statesman and between 1751 and his death in 1763 Lord President of the Council. A committed Hanoverian and whig, he served both George I and his son George II, including a number of diplomatic missions. Granville was noted for his learning, his close friend Jonathan Swift describing him as possessing ‘more Greek, Latin, and Philosophy, than properly became a Person of his Rank.’. He also had a number of modern languages and was said to have been almost the only Englishman of his age who spoke German, which allowed him to converse with George II in the monarch’s native tongue. Granville was also a keen musician. His daughter Lady Grace Carteret (1713-55) married in 1729 Lionel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart. The wax portrait seems to relat to a group of four ivory portrait reliefs at Ham House (NT 1140217, 1140225-27) which depict members of Granville's family: his daughters Grace, Countess of Dysart and Frances Hay, Marchioness of Tweeddale, his grandson Wilbrahim Tollemache, later 6th Earl of Dysart and his second wife Sophia Fermor. Granville married Sophia in 1744, after the death of his first wife Frances Worsley. Sophia died in October 1745, a couple of months after the birth in August of their daughter, also Sophia. Lord Granville is shown wearing the order and sash of the Order of the Garter, which would date it to not earlier than 1759, the year in which Granville was admitted to the Order. A portrait of Lord Granville by Samuel Hoare in the Parliamentary Art Collection shows him likewise wearing the insignia of the Garter. The relief may well be the work of Isaac Gosset (1713-99), the leading portraitist in wax in London in the eighteenth century. The format of the portrait and the oval frame are very similar to portraits of King George II at Felbrigg (NT 1402965) and Henry Bathurst, 2nd Earl Bathurst at Dyrham Park (NT 454734). Jeremy Warren January 2022
Provenance
By descent, until acquired in 1948 by HM Government when Sir Lyonel, 4th Bt (1854 – 1952) and Sir Cecil Tollemache, 5th Bt (1886 – 1969) presented Ham House to the National Trust. Entrusted to the care of the Victoria & Albert Museum until 1990, when returned to the care of the National Trust, to which ownership was transferred in 2002.
Makers and roles
attributed to Isaac Gosset (1713 - 1799), sculptor