Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset (1688-1765)
after Sir Godfrey Kneller (Lübeck 1646 - London 1723)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1710 - circa 1717
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1215 x 985 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Knole, Kent
NT 129813
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset (1688-1765), after Sir Godfrey Kneller (Lübeck 1646/9 - London 1723), early 18th century. A three-quarter length portrait of a young man turned to the right, gazing at the spectator in a long brown wig, wearing a crimson coat, with a blue sash holding a stick in his right hand. Dover Castle is in the background, distant horizon with clouds. Lionel Cranfield Sackville succeeded his father as 7th Earl in 1706 and was created Duke of Dorset in 1720. He was intermittently (1708 – 1713, 1714 – 1717, 4 Jan. 1727/28 – 1730[?]) Constable of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports, until 1757 when his appointments were made permanent. He was described by Shelburne as a perfect English courtier and “nothing else”. His governmental posts included two appointments as Lord Steward of the Household 1725 – 1730 & 1737 – 45, and two as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland (1730-37 & 1750 – 55). He married Elizabeth Colyear, daughter of General Colyear and of James II’s former mistress, Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester, in 1708/9. She, who was born in 1686, outlived him, dying in 1768. The 1st Duke must have disappointed a number of the expectations aroused by being the son of the so much more gifted and appealing 6th Earl, including those of Matthew Prior, who began his dedication to the then still Earl of Dorset of his Poems of Several Occasions (1708), with the Virgilian invocation: “Tu Marcellus eris, - Our Eyes and our hearts are turned on You …..”
Provenance
Possibly the 'Lionel Duke of Dorset' [without attribition] listed in the Venetian Bedroom in the 1799 inventory of Knole; possibly the 'Lionel Duke of Dorset' (No.374), without further details, listed in the Leicester Gallery in the 1828 inventory of Knole; thence by descent. On loan from the Trustees of the Sackville Estate.
Credit line
Knole, The Sackville Collection
Makers and roles
after Sir Godfrey Kneller (Lübeck 1646 - London 1723), publisher