Bennet Langton (1737-1801)
Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (Plympton 1723 - London 1792)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1759 (sittings recorded) - 1762
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1250 x 1000 mm (50 x 40 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Gunby Hall Estate, Lincolnshire
NT 637611
Caption
Bennet Langton met Reynolds through a mutual friendship with the great man of letters, Samuel Johnson (1709-84). He became an original member of their Literary Club, founded in 1764 by Reynolds, Johnson and the philosopher-politician Edmund Burke. Scholarly, amiable and, according to Boswell, furnished with an 'inexhaustible fund of entertaining conversation', Langton's exceptional height and willowy frame are conveyed in this relaxed portrait. In 1760 Reynolds moved to a larger residence in Leicester Fields; he took on an apprentice and exhibited portraits at the Society of Artists, the first public exhibition of paintings ever held in England. His portraits were being recognised for their innovative approach to characterisation, Langton here posed as the leisured scholar, leaning effortlessly and sinuously upon a volume of Clarendon's History of the Rebellion - a Tory account of the English Civil Wars. Reynolds' pocket-books record several sittings and rendezvous with Langton, whose future wife, Mary Lloyd, was also painted by him when she was the Countess of Rothes.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Bennet Langton (1737-1801) by Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. (Plympton 1723 - London 1792), 1759-62 A three-quarter-length portrait, seated, facing right, beside a table, his head supported on his proper right hand, his elbow on a volume of Clarendon's History of the Rebellion (1702-4) and The Prince of Abyssinia by Johannes Rasselas (1759). He is wearing dark blue coat, red collar, gold frogging, white cuffs and cravat, his long locks of hair falling over his shoulder. Langton was an English writer and a founding member of the Literary Club. He was a friend of Samuel Johnson, whom he succeeded as Professor of Ancient Literature at the Royal Academy. He married in 1770 Mary Lloyd, widow of the 10th Earl of Rothes. Their second son, Peregrine, assumed the name of Massingberd after his marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Massingberd (Gunby Hall). Sittings to Reynolds are recorded in 1759, 1761, 1762, with a payment of £21 before 1761. 'Mr Langton' appears on numerous occasions in Reynolds' pocket books. Nine appointments are recorded in the first half of 1760 and two in 1761; subsequent entries occur.
Provenance
1944, gifted to the National Trust by Field Marshal Sir Archibald and Lady Montgomery Massingberd.
Makers and roles
Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (Plympton 1723 - London 1792), artist