Thomas Molyneux-Seel (d.1869)
Ferdinando Cavalleri (Turin 1794 - Rome 1865)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1824 (signed and dated) - 1824
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
825 x 658 mm
Place of origin
Rome
Order this imageCollection
Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk
NT 1210343
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Thomas Molyneux-Seel (d.1869) by Fernando Cavalleri (Turin 1794 - Rome 1865), signed and dated 1824. A half-length portrait, seated turned to the right, gazing to the right, wearing a dark green-brown jacket and a blue cape with a fur collar, white shirt with turned-up high-pointed collar and black stock, leaning with his right hand over the back of a chair. Against a red curtain, with a column in the background. Born Thomas Unsworth, the sitter took the name Molyneux Seel as the beneficiary of his maternal grandparents' estate. 'The Jerningham Letters' describe his courtship of Agnes Bedingfeld (1798-1870) of Oxburgh Hall, whom he married in Ghent in 1823. The portrait was painted in Rome during a prolonged honeymoon which was to last more than a year. The couple commissioned both oil portraits and marble busts during their time in Rome (see NT 1210896, 1210481, 1210517). The 1813 cat. number is missing.
Provenance
By descent from Edmund Molyneux Seel (1824-1909) to Dr Edmund Carr-Saunders (1931-2022), from whom on loan to the National Trust 1977-2022, bequeathed to the National Trust 2022.
Makers and roles
Ferdinando Cavalleri (Turin 1794 - Rome 1865), artist