William Augustus Bowles (1763-1805), as a Native North American (Creek) Chief
Thomas Hardy (1757–1804)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1790 (sitter in England) - 16 Mar 1791 (mezzotint)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
749 x 622 mm (29 1/2 x 24 1/2 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Upton House, Warwickshire
NT 446698
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, William Augustus Bowles (1763-1805), as a Native North American (Creek) Chief by Thomas Hardy (1757- c.1804), 1790. A half-length portrait, body turned to the right, left arm slightly extended holding a satchel and a cloak over it, head facing; he wears a racoon skin cap with jewel and aigrette feathers , an open white shirt with elbow bracelet, and a short head scarf/belt (wampum) around his neck over which hangs a plain gorget.
Provenance
Anonymous sale, Christie's, 19 July 1946, lot 110, as the "Portrait of a Red Indian Chief", by Beechey: bought by 'Barnes' for 125gns (see Lievens’s Priest, the Mill said to be by Rembrandt, & the copy of Duyster: this appears to have been the name that Christie's clerk bid for Lord Bearsted under); 2nd Viscount Beartsted after 1946; given with Upton House to the National Trust by Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted (1882 – 1948), in 1948, shortly before his death
Credit line
Upton House, The Bearsted Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Thomas Hardy (1757–1804), artist previously catalogued as attributed to George Romney (Dalton-in-Furness 1734 – Kendal 1802), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Sir William Beechey (Burford 1753 - Hampstead 1839), artist
References
Honour 1995 Hugh Honour, The New Golden Land: European Images of America from the Discoveries to the Present Time, New York, 1995, p.134 & fig.128 The European Vision of America, The Cleveland Museum of Art, &c. (Hugh Honour), 1976-77, under no.187 (the Met’s example of Grozer’s mezzotint).
