Benjamin Lethieullier MP (1728/9-1797), with two Wild Boar Spears
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Lucca 1708 – Rome 1787)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1752 (signed and dated)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
991 x 737 mm (39 x 29 in)
Place of origin
Rome
Order this imageCollection
Uppark House and Garden, West Sussex
NT 138267
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Benjamin Lethieullier MP (1728/9-1797) by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Lucca 1708 – Rome 1787), signed and dated 1752. A half-length portrait to right in a landscape, head facing, in scarlet coat and mauve waistcoat, two wild boar hunting spears in his right hand, his left resting on a boar's head, a whippet left. The elder son of Christopher Lethieullier (a director of the Bank of England), and brother of Sarah Lethieullier, who married Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh in 1746. He accompanied the Fetherstonhaughs to Rome, where he was painted, like his brother-in-law, as a boar-hunter by Pompeo Batoni, 1708-1787.
Provenance
Presumably commissioned by Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh; thence by descent and inheritance, until accepted in lieu of tax on the death of Admiral the Hon. Sir Herbert Meade-Fetherstonhaugh (1875-1964) in 1965 and transferred to the National Trust by the Treasury in September 1990. Presumably commissioned by Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh of his wife’s brother; early 19th-century hanging plans, in the Great Drawing Room: “5. Benjamin Lethieullier Esqr. [by] Pompeo Battoni”’ H. R. Bolton’s bill for cleaning, 28 September 1849, in the Large Drawing Room: 20 “ - Do. [Portrait] of Benjamin Lethieullier Esq. – P. Battoni”; 1874 inventory, in the Little Drawing Room [sic – or an error of transcription?]: “Do. [‘Oil Painting’] Portrait of B. Letheieullier [sic] Pompeo Batoni”; thereafter by inheritance and descent, until accepted in lieu of tax on the death of Admiral the Hon. Sir Herbert Meade-Fetherstonhaugh (1875-1964) in 1965, and transferred to the National Trust by HM Treasury, September 1990.
Credit line
Uppark, The Fetherstonhaugh Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Benj. Lethieullier Esq of Belmont / in Middlesex./Brother to Ly Fetherstonhaugh. / Painted by Pompeio Battoni at / Rome Anno 1751 (old label stuck to back of canvas)
Makers and roles
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Lucca 1708 – Rome 1787), artist
Exhibition history
Souvenirs of the Grand Tour, Wildenstein, London, 1982, no.2