Henry II Bankes, MP (1757-1834)
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Lucca 1708 – Rome 1787)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1779 (signed and dated)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
991 x 724 mm (39 x 28 1/2 in)
Place of origin
Rome
Order this imageCollection
Kingston Lacy Estate, Dorset
NT 1257055
Caption
Henry Bankes the younger, had this portrait of him done for his mother whilst he was on his Grand Tour in Rome in 1779 by the most famous portrait painter there at the time, Pompeo Batoni. However, he thought it: ‘a melancholy cold picture, whose only merit is being simple and having nothing offensive’. On his return, he expanded Kingston Hall, which later became Kingston Lacy. He married the society beauty, Frances Woodley in 1784.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Henry II Bankes, MP (1757-1834) by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Lucca 1708 – Rome 1787), signed and dated on pedestal at left: POMPEO BATO[NI] / PINX. ROM. 1779 (overwritten). A three-quarter-length, turned to left, head turned to spectator, his right arm resting on a pedestal, his left hand on his hip; dressed in a brown coat and white stock.
Provenance
Painted in Rome for the sitter's mother; thence by descent until bequeathed by Ralph Bankes, 1981
Marks and inscriptions
POMPEO BATONI/PINX. ROM. 1779
Makers and roles
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Lucca 1708 – Rome 1787), artist
References
Georgian Faces. Portrait of a County. Gwen Yarker. Dorset County Museum, 15th January - 30 April 2011, pp.558-59, illus. p.559.
