The Rt. Hon. William Windham III MP (1750-1810) (after John Hoppner)
Samuel William Reynolds the elder (London 1773 – London 1835)
Category
Art / Prints
Date
1804
Materials
Paper
Measurements
760 mm (H)540 mm (W)655 mm (H)435 mm (W)607 mm (H)380 mm (W)
Order this imageCollection
Felbrigg, Norfolk
NT 1397863
Summary
Print, mezzotint, The Rt. Hon. William Windham III MP (1750-1810) (after John Hoppner) by Samuel William Reynolds the elder (London 1773 – London 1835). Full length portrait of William Windham standing with right arm raised, stormy skies, a pillar and a distant view of Norwich Cathedral behind. Gilt frame, mounted and glazed. See also D/52 in Tenant's Waiting Room. Son of William Windham II and Sarah Hicks; married Cecilia Forrest. A Whig politician who rose to being Secretary of War under Pitt (1794-1801) and again in Grenville's ministry (1806-7), when he was associated with the reform of conditions in the Navy. According to the article in the Dictionary of National Biography, he was pious, chivalrous, and disinterested, and his brilliant social qualities made him one of the first gentlemen as well as one of the soundest sportsmen of his time'. The article refers to his diary, published in 1866, as showing him to have been vacillating and hypochrondriacal in private, but excuses his political inconsistency, which led him to his being nicknamed 'Weathercock Windham'. He was a good orator, and became the leader of his party in the Commons, so was much offended to be offered a peerage after Fox's death: "They want ordanance, and yet would begin by spiking one of their greatest guns!" (Earl of Ilchester, The Home of the Hollands, 1937, pp.241-42).
Makers and roles
Samuel William Reynolds the elder (London 1773 – London 1835), engraver (printmaker) after John Hoppner, RA (London 1758 – London 1810), artist