Robert Throckmorton (1750-1779)
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Lucca 1708 – Rome 1787)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1772 (signed and dated)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
762 x 616 mm (30 x 24 ¼ in)
Place of origin
Rome
Order this imageCollection
Coughton Court, Warwickshire
NT 135594
Caption
The sitter in this portrait is holding a print of the Pantheon. Indeed, he was painted by Batoni whilst he was on the Grand Tour, and this picture was done in Rome as the inscription says. Batoni became the portrait artist of choice for young aristocrats who wanted to immortalise themselves whilst abroad. Robert was the eldest son of George Throckmorton (1721-1762). He visited Italy in 1772, but died without having married seven years later. His younger brother, John (1753-1819) who, it has also been suggested is the actual sitter of this portrait, succeeded to the baronetcy.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Robert Throckmorton (1750-1779) by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Lucca 1708 – Rome 1787), signed and dated on the scrolled end of the print of the Pantheon held by the sitter: P. Batoni pinxit Romæ an.1772. Inscribed top left: with the name of the sitter: ROBERT THROCKMORTON ESQR SON OF GEORGE THROCKMORTON / OF WESTON UNDERWOOD COM: BUCKS. BORN 1750. DIED 1779. A half-length portrait in green, gold braided coat holding a scroll with a drawing of the Pantheon, Rome. The painting was transferred from Weston Underwood, another Throckmorton family seat, to Coughton Court in the nineteenth century.
Provenance
By descent in the Throckmorton family, first at Weston Underwood and then at Coughton Court, until purchased by the National Trust by private treaty, 2003, with funds given by an anonymous benefactor.
Credit line
Coughton Court, The Throckmorton Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Lucca 1708 – Rome 1787), artist
References
Steegman 1946 J. Steegman, ‘Some English Portraits by Pompeo Batoni’, Burlington Magazine, vol. LXXXVIII, March 1946, p.55, no.54 Clark and Bowron 1985 Anthony M. Clark & Edgar Peters Bowron (ed.), Pompeo Batoni A Complete Catalogue of his Works with an Introductory Text, Oxford 1985, no.351, p.325 & pl.320 Ford & Ingamells 1997 Brinsley Ford, A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy 1700-1800, ed. John Ingamells, New Haven and London, 1997, p.942