Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of Egremont (1710-1763)
William Hoare of Bath, RA (Eye 1707 – Bath 1792)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1760 - 1763 (payment recorded)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1240 x 1000 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex
NT 486816
Caption
The 2nd Earl died shortly after this portrait was painted. Horace Walpole wrote in a letter of 1st Septmeber 1763 that “everybody knew he would die suddenly, he used no exercise, and could not be kept from eating, without which prodigious bleedings did not suffice. A day or two before he died he said ‘Well, I have but three turtle-dinners to come, and if I survive them I shall be immortal’.” Sir Charles was a collector of pictures and sculpture on a considerable scale. Although Walpole had written of his glaring extravagance and lack of concern for the sums he paid for pictures, it was not until the discovery at Petworth in 1961 of a notebook, containing a list of his purchases, that his activities in the field of collecting pictures were documented. On his death, his gallery of antique sculpture, acquired through the agency of Matthew Brettingham and Gavin Hamilton, was still in packing cases.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of Egremont (1710-1763) by William Hoare of Bath, RA (Eye 1707 – Bath 1792), 1763. A three-quarter-length portrait, seated on a green settee, full face, and wearing a plum-coloured satin coat, breeches and vest, his left hand is in his vest.
Provenance
Painted for the 2nd Earl of Egremont (1710-1763) 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)
Marks and inscriptions
Bottom left corner: inscribed with name Recto and Verso: The recto itemises the pictures painted by Hoare for the 2nd Earl of Egremont: A half length of his Lordship 31 - 10 Do of Lady Egremont 31 - 10 .... The verso is a receipt for the monies: Sepr 28 1763 Recd the full Contents on the other side of the Right Honble the Countess of Egremont Extr of the late Earl of Egremont for the use of Mr William Hoare. Isaac Gosset. The verso is further endorsed Hoare's Bill/ for Portraits / 136.10.0. / paid 27 September 1763 / Hoare's bill 136.10.0.
Makers and roles
William Hoare of Bath, RA (Eye 1707 – Bath 1792), artist
References
Remastered - Bosch to Bellotto: An Exhibition of Petworth's European Old Masters (exh cat) (Andrew Loukes) Petworth House, West Sussex, 9 January - 6 March 2016, cat. 33