Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)
George Knapton (London 1698 - London 1778)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1745
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
2501 x 1638 mm
Order this imageCollection
Beningbrough Hall, North Yorkshire
NT 1191212
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773) by George Knapton (London 1698 – Kensington 1778), signed, circa 1745. A full-length portrait, seated, turned slightly to the right, gazing at the spectator. Statesman and author of the 'Chesterfield' letters, attempting to instil good breeding in his natural son.
Full description
Illustrated hanging at Beningbrough in H. A. Tipping, 'English Homes Period IV, vol II' (1928) pl.346
Provenance
Purchased for £84 by the Ministry of Works from the Curtis and Henson Beningbrough contents sale, June 1958, lot 1119. Sold as "Richardson. A full length portrait of Philip, Earl of Chesterfield". Transferred along with house to National Trust in 1958. Other items, including several paintings, which were at Beningbrough between 1917 and 1958 had previously been at Holme Lacy, the inherited Scudamore house near Hereford sold by the 10th Earl of Chesterfield in 1910 (e.g. NT 1191152, another portrait of the 4th Earl). However, this work is not listed in the 1910 Holme Lacy auction catalogue and may therefore have come from another source. One strong possibility is that this is the "portrait of the 4th Earl of Chesterfield...seated at a table, holding a letter" by J.Richardson (89 x 55 inches) that was sold at the Christies auction of "A Portion of the Bretby Heirlooms" May 31st 1918, lot 61. At least one other work that is known to have hung on the stairs at Beningbrough from the 1920s until 1958 (a Studio of Van Dyke joint portrait of 'Katherine, Countess of Chesterfield, and Lucy, Countess of Huntingdon', now in the Yale Center for British Art) is securely known to have come from this Bretby sale. These works would therefore appear to have been purchased by the Chesterfields for Beningbrough as part of the decorating of their new house.
Makers and roles
George Knapton (London 1698 - London 1778), artist