The Rt. Hon. Sir William Lee, MP, PC (1688-1754), Lord Chief Justice
John Vanderbank the younger (London 1694 - London 1739)
Date
1737
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
2337 x 1460 mm
Collection
Hartwell House, Buckinghamshire
NT 2900239
Summary
Oil on canvas, The Rt. Hon. Sir William Lee, MP, PC (1688-1754), Lord Chief Justice, wearing judicial robes, in a classical interior, by John Vanderbank the younger (London 1694 - London 1739, signed and indistinctly dated '173[7?] at lower right. A full-length portrait of a man, standing within a classical interior and facing the viewer, wearing red judicial robes with white fur mantle, a chain of office and a long wig, his proper right hand pointing to a scroll on a table.The sitter was the second son of Sir Thomas Lee, 2nd Bt., of Hartwell. Lee served as Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 1737 until his sudden death in 1754. The portrait was engraved by John Faber in 1738 (see impression at British Museum, London 1902,1011.1708). In a contemporary parcel gilt frame with eagle cresting.
Full description
The sitter was the second son of Sir Thomas Lees, 2nd Baronet of Hartwell House and his wife, Alice Hopkins, the daughter of a London merchant. After matriculating from Wadham College, Oxford in 1704, he joined the Middle Temple and eventually called to the bar in 1710. Serving as Member of Parliament for Wycombe from 1727, he gave up his seat in 1730 when he became a member a Justice of the King’s Bench. Lee became Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from June 1737 until his death in 1754. He also served, albeit very briefly, as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the last year of his life. His career in the judiciary gained him a reputation for reform with the prominent Liberal politician, lawyer and man of letters, Lord Campbell (1779-1861), later noting that he ‘stood up for the rights of woman more strenuously than any English judge before or since his time’. A copy of the present portrait now hangs at the National Portrait Gallery, London (NPG 471).
Provenance
Commissioned by the sitter at Hartwell House, Buckinghamshire, and by descent to, Mrs Benedict Eyre, Hartwell House; her sale, Sotheby’s, on the premises, 26 April 1938, lot 49, when acquired by the Hon. Peter Peatty, Mereworth Castle, Kent, and by inheritance to his nephew, Michael Lambert Tree and Lady Anne Tree, née Cavendish; Christie’s, London, 23 May 1968, lot 118, as ‘attributed to Kneller’ (1, 200 guineas to Philips); private collection, England; purchased by the National Trust in 2017 for display at Hartwell House (Historic House Hotel), with the support of a National Trust fund set up by the late Simon Sainsbury; Historic House Hotels; and an anonymous donor.
Makers and roles
John Vanderbank the younger (London 1694 - London 1739), artist