Colonel Thomas Peter Legh (1753-1797)
James Cranke the Younger (1746/48 - 1826)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1795
Materials
Oil on canvas
Place of origin
England
Collection
Lyme, Cheshire
NT 499954
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Colonel Thomas Peter Legh (1753-1797) by James Cranke the younger (1748 - 1826), 1795. A late eighteenth-century portrait of Colonel Thomas Legh (1753-1797), of the 3rd Light Lancashire Dragoons. The male sitter is painted full length and turned slightly to the right. He has white hair, pigtail and beard and wears the uniform of a volunteer regiment; a deep blue tailcoat, a pink sash, white breeches and a white shoulder belt with badge inscribed 'LLD'. He stands with legs crossed, his right arm resting on a stone wall on which lies a bearskin with yellow ribbon and Prince of Wales insignia. A brown bridled horse stands to the right with crossed front legs. The portrait is set in landscape with a tree on the left. See also NT 499954, 500011, 500019 and a version in the collection of the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry Museum, Preston (LANOY.453). Payment is recorded in an account book (1 June 1795) to James Crank ('painter') 'for copying three whole lengths at Lyme' (£31.10.0).
Provenance
The portrait was formerly displayed in T. B. Spires's office, at the English Sewing Cotton Co. Ltd, 56 Oxford Road, Manchester. The painting belonged to T. B. Spires's father, who purchased it at the 1946 Newton sale. See letter in 'furniture and fittings 1953-1983')
Marks and inscriptions
Verso: Canvas stamps (twice): .....J.237 265 175 with 1797 on its side; each of these numbers is contained in joined oblong boxes with Crown over cypher and L????? / 99; and: xxxy 00LE / High Holborn / LINEN.
Makers and roles
James Cranke the Younger (1746/48 - 1826), publisher