Master George Edward Graham (1771-1834) (later George Edward Graham-Foster-Pigott)
Tilly Kettle (1735 - Aleppo 1786)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1774
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1219 x 1003 mm (48 x 39 1/2 in)
Place of origin
India
Order this imageCollection
Wimpole, Cambridgeshire
NT 207808
Caption
The charming device of a nest with baby birds in George Graham’s hand is related to another child portrait by Kettle, of Master Thomas Prinsep of Croxell, who holds a nest full of eggs, which he points to – whereas George Edward’s gesture, pointing to the sky, seems to anticipate that these hatchlings will soon fly the nest. George Edward Graham was the third son of John I Graham of Yatton (1741-1775). While covering the Duke of York’s disastrous retreat from the Netherlands in the winter of 1794-95, his captain Granado Pigott received a mortal wound; George carried him off the field, and after Captain Pigott’s death, took home his effects to his sister, who was the sole heir to the Abingdon Pigott estate. Her only daughter and sole heir was Mary Foster Pigott, who became George Edward Graham’s wife. When the Abingdon-Pigott estate fell to Mary in 1827, the couple added (by Royal licence) the surnames Foster-Pigott to that of Graham.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Master George Edward Graham (1771-1834) (later George Edward Graham-Foster-Pigott) by Tilly Kettle (Exeter 1735 – Aleppo 1786), 1774. Painted in 1774 in India, it shows the son of John Graham, of the Supreme Council of Bengal. George Graham became a colonel in the Sussex militia and MP for Kinross. He ultimately lived at Abington Pigotts, Cambridgeshire, which may have stimulated the Bambridges to buy this picture. Inserted in mantelpiece.
Provenance
Commissioned by John Graham (1741 - 1775), the sitter's father, whilst the family was in India (1768-75); by inheritance through Mary Graham (d.1858), widow of the sitter, to Commander R. D. Graham, RN, of Stawell House, Bridgewater, Somerset; his sale by Commander R.D. Graham, Christie’s, 9th April 1937, lot 40,as 'Master George Edward Graham' bought by Frost & Reed for £440; miscellaneous sale, Sotheby’s, 31 March 1943, lot 92 (as ‘John Graham’), bought by Captain Bambridge via Leggatt's for £245; bequeathed by Elsie Kipling, Mrs. Bambridge (1896-1976) to the National Trust together with Wimpole Hall, all its contents and an estate of 3,000 acres
Credit line
Wimpole Hall, The Bambridge Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Tilly Kettle (1735 - Aleppo 1786), artist
References
Waterhouse 1981 Ellis K. Waterhouse, The Dictionary of British 18th-century Painters in oils and crayons, Woodbridge 1981 , p. 205