John Hussey Delaval, later 1st Baron Delaval of Seaton Delaval (1728-1808), in Vandyck dress
William Bell (c.1735 - 1794)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1774 (signed and bears date)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
2311 x 1422 mm (91 x 56 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Seaton Delaval Hall, Northumberland
NT 1276762
Caption
This portrait is one of a series, depicting Delaval family members, which now hang in the Gallery at Seaton Delaval. The sitter was the second son of Captain Francis Blake Delaval (1692 – 1752) and Rhoda Apreece (d. 1759). He was educated at Westminster, Eton, and Pembroke College, Cambridge, although his degree was cut short when it was discovered that the ‘Captain Hargreaves’ living with him proved to be female. A talented industrialist, he rescued the Seaton Delaval estate after the spendthrift mismanagement of his elder brother, Sir Francis. After his first wife, Susanna, died in 1783, he took on as his mistress the sixteen year-old Elizabeth Hicks (d.1796), but from 1795 her affections were shared with Susanna Elizabeth Knight (c.1762 – 1822), whom he married in 1803. For most of his life, William Bell was a provincial painter in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. This series of portraits is undoubtedly his masterpiece, showing him to have been a gifted and individual painter, influenced by Reynolds and Kauffman.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, John Hussey Delaval, later 1st Baron Delaval of Seaton Delaval (1728-1808), in Vandyck dress by William Bell (1735 - ? Newcastle 1806), signed bottom right: Wm. Bell Pinx.t and inscribed, bottom left: Sr John Hussey Delaval Bart. 1774. Full-length, standing, wearing a black silk ‘Vandyck’ costume and a pink sash with matching rosettes on his shoes; his left hand rests on a plinth, his right gesturing towards the landscape beyond.
Full description
The second son of the twelve children of Captain Francis Blake Delaval (1692 – 1752) and Rhoda Apreece (d. 1759). He was educated at Westminster, Eton, and Pembroke College, Cambridge, although his degree was cut short when it was discovered that the ‘Captain Hargreaves’ living with him proved to be female. A talented industrialist, he rescued the Seaton Delaval estate after the spendthrift mismanagement of his elder brother, Sir Francis. He was elected MP for Berwick in 1754, 1765, 1768, 1780, and 1784. He was made a baronet in 1761, and Baron Delaval of Redford in the Irish peerage (which allowed him to go on sitting in the English House of Commons) in 1783, and in the English peerage in 1786. He succeeded to Doddington in 1759, but lost it to his brother Edward in 1774. Having spent £17,000 on improvements there, he exacted his revenge by felling every tree on the estate. After his first wife, Susanna, died in 1783, he took on as his mistress the sixteen year-old Elizabeth Hicks (d.1796), but from 1795 her affections were shared with Susanna Elizabeth Knight (c.1762 – 1822), whom he married in 1803. By his first wife he had one son and six daughters, but his son predeceased him. He had no children by his second wife. He was buried in June 1808 in St. Paul’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey. Why was he painted four years after his wife and son? Could he have been away for a prolonged period? And why are the daughters in different frames, and character? It is difficult to imagine them in one room. Their frames are simpler (c.1800), and were possibly changed at a later date in order to fit into a smaller space. It seems unlikely that they hung in the Entrance Hall (the architecture does not appear to allow). The two older girls, either in profile, or near-profile possibly hung at either end of the sequence, serving as ‘book-ends’. Moreover the inscriptions are written at a level to be read – at the very bottom – which indicates that they were intended to be hung low (as also indicated by the perspective on the base of the pedestal in Susanna’s portrait: we look down upon it). John indicates to the left towards his son and heir, rather than his wife, who looks the other way; it therefore seems possible that these two hung together (it is for he whom John built the mausoleum in the grounds). William Bell is little known for two reasons: that he was for most of his life a provincial painter, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne; and that for half a decade or more, from c.1770 to at least 1775 he was “limner” – the term was as old-fashioned as the mode of employment – to Sir John Hussey Delaval (cr. Baron Delaval of Redford in the Irish Peerage in 1783, and Seaton Delaval in the British Peerage in 1786. Yet these portraits show him to have been a gifted and individual painter, and his London career was much more promising. He was – at the advanced age of 34 – the first student to enter the newly-founded Royal Academy’s Schools in 1769, and won a gold medal there for a painting of Venus Entreating Vulcan to forge Arms for Aeneas in 1771. It seems likely that he was related to Alexander Bell, who carved stonework at Seaton Delaval between 1764 and 1768, and who returned there in 1776 to build the mausoleum. That may have been the connection that brought William to Seaton Delaval, where he not only painted the four original whole-lengths, but also extended earlier family portraits to make a set with them. They all hang in the Gallery, along with the Astley / Hasting chairs and settees upholstered with the Tournament embroidery. Other portraits by Bell are in what is now the main repository of Delaval pictures, Dodington Hall, Lincolnshire. After this activity for Lord Delaval, Bell retired back to Newcastle, and sank into provincial obscurity. He seems, towards the end of his life, to have became the friend of Thomas Bewick, the wood-engraver of Cherryburn (NT). (Amanda Bradley)
Provenance
accepted in lieu of tax by H.M. Treasury and transferred to the National Trust in 2009.
Credit line
Seaton Delaval, The Hastings Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Recto,bottom right: Wm. Bell Pinxt. Recto,bottom left: Sr John Hussey Delaval Bart. 1774. Recto: The Rt. Honble JOHN, LORD DELAVAL / of Seaton Delaval and Ford Castle, Northumberland and Doddington, Lincolnshire. / B.1728. – D.1808. / WILLIAM BELL, 1774
Makers and roles
William Bell (c.1735 - 1794), artist