Richard Willis (1724-1780)
attributed to Robert Edge Pine (London 1730 – Philadelphia 1788)
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
1760 - 1763
Materials
Pastel on paper
Measurements
305 x 254 mm (12 x 10 in)
Order this imageCollection
Clevedon Court, North Somerset
NT 623920
Summary
Pastel on paper (oval), Richard Willis (1724-1780) by Robert Edge Pine (1730-1788). c.1760-63. Married Bethia Legge (1734-1778); parents of James Legge Willis (1761-1817) and grandparents of Rhoda Susan Willis (1809-1873) the first wife of Sir Arthur Hallam Elton, 7th Bt, MP (1818-1883). An oval head-and-shoulders portrait of a middle-aged man, turned slightly to the right gazing at spectator. White powdered wig, tied at back with a black ribbon, wearing a blue coat and waistcoat with blue buttons, simple white stock and frilled shirt front. Image copyright John Hammond.
Provenance
Lydiard Park;
Credit line
Bequest of Col. Richard Ffolliot Willis, 1956 formerly lent to Lydiard Tregoze, Swindon; transferred to Clevedon Court
Makers and roles
attributed to Robert Edge Pine (London 1730 – Philadelphia 1788), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Francis Cotes (London 1726 - London 1770), artist
References
Waterhouse 1980: Ellis K. Waterhouse, 'The Willis Family Portraits at Lydiard Park' National Trust Studies, 1980, pp.49-53, p.49: Illus. Caption to illustration: "2. Richard Willis (1724-80), drawing in crayons, 30.4 cm by 24.1 cm. p.50: "The series begins with a pair of portraits of the great-great-grandfather of Colonel [Richard ffolliott] Willis [1875-1956], and a companion pair of portraits of his wife. This Richard Willis (1724-80) (Fig.2), who was born in Cumberland, was a Turkey merchant of the Levant and he married at St Olave's, Hart Street, in 1757, Bethia Legg (1734/5-78) (Fig.3), daughter of William Legg of Atherfield Manor, Isle of Wight. There is a pair of heads in crayons and a pair of half-lengths in oils (Figs 4 and 5), obviously from the same sittings as the heads and equally clearly by the same artist. The larger pictures bore an old label as by Ramsay, but this attribution was changed to 'probably by Cotes'. However, neither of these attributions is acceptable. They are obviously, ina sense, 'marriage portraits' but need not be quite as early as 1757 and a date not later than the early 1760s seems probable from the costume. The two painters who practised equally in oil and crayons who deserve to be cosidered are Robert Edge Pine and William Hoare, neither of which has been the bject of very close research. I think Pine is the more probable, although they lack the mannerism by which his slightly later portraits can easily be recognised, a sort of slicing of the edge of the forehead which is in half shadow. Richard Willis went bankrupt in 1778, owing to the French Wars and was sent by his creidtors to Grenada to settle his affairs there. He died of wounds received at the siege of Grenada in 1780."