The Rt. Hon. William Windham III MP (1750-1810) (after Sir Thomas Lawrence PRA)
John Jackson (1795-1810)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1803 - 1810
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1245 x 991 mm (49 x 39 in)
Order this imageCollection
Felbrigg, Norfolk
NT 1401187
Caption
The original of this picture, by Lawrence, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1803. It is now at University College, Oxford – the sitter’s college. The portrait has always been traditionally ascribed to Jackson, but it is possible that a second hand was involved. The sitter was the last of the true Windhams of Felbrigg; its only owner to perform upon the national stage; diarist; and friend of Samuel Johnson. He was a Whig politician who rose to being Secretary of War under Pitt, and again in Grenville’s ministry. Due to his political inconsistency, he was nicknamed ‘Weathercock Windham’. However, he was a gifted orator, and saw himself as ‘a scholar among politicians and a politician among scholars.’
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, The Rt. Hon. William Windham III MP (1750-1810) (after Sir Thomas Lawrence PRA) by John Jackson (1795-1810), 1803/10. A three-quarter-length portrait of the last true Windhams of Felbrigg, standing full face, wearing black. He holds a paper in his left hand, which rests on a book on a table to his right. Architectural feature and curtain background. Felbrigg's only owner to perform upon the national stage, diariest, and friend of Samuel Johnson. Known to his opponents as 'Weathercock Windham' for his oscillation between Fox and Pitt. The original of this portrait was exhibited by Lawrence at the Royal Academy in 1803, and is at the sitter's college, University College, Oxford. He was 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).
Provenance
Part of the Windham Collection. The hall and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust in 1969 by Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer (1906-1969)
Makers and roles
John Jackson (1795-1810), artist after Sir Thomas Lawrence, PRA (Bristol 1769 – London 1830), artist
References
Garlick 1989 Kenneth Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence. A complete catalogue of the oil paintings, Oxford, 1989, no. 836 (a)