Colonel Alexander Dow (1735/6 - 1779)
Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (Plympton 1723 - London 1792)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1771 (sittings and payment recorded)
Materials
oil on canvas
Measurements
750 x 620 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex
NT 486809
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Colonel Alexander Dow ((1735/6 - 1779) by Sir Joshua Reynolds (Plympton 1723 - London 1792), 1771. An East India Company officer and playwright, he is shown full face, eyes looking towards the left, with brown hair and wearing a deep crimson coat with a white stock.
Provenance
Painted for Colonel Dow in 1771 [Sittings are recorded in Reynolds's pocket book for 30 June; 3, 8, 11, 15 July, 1771. A payment of 35 gns. was made on 29 December 1771] and bought by the 3rd Earl of Egremont from the Caleb Whiteford Sale on 4 May, 1810. Thence by descent, until the death in 1952 of the 3rd Lord Leconfield, who had given Petworth to the National Trust in 1947, and whose nephew and heir, John Wyndham, 6th Lord Leconfield and 1st Lord Egremont (1920-72) arranged for the acceptance of the major portion of the collections at Petworth in lieu of death duties (the first ever such arrangement) in 1956 by H.M.Treasury.
Credit line
Petworth House, The Egremont Collection (acquired in lieu of tax by HM Treasury in 1956 and subsequently transferred to the National Trust)
Makers and roles
Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (Plympton 1723 - London 1792), artist