Sir Thomas Felton (1649-1708/9)
Sir Godfrey Kneller (Lübeck 1646 - London 1723)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1699
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1270 x 1016 mm (50 x 40 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Ickworth, Suffolk
NT 851742
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Sir Thomas Felton (1649-1708/9) by Sir Godfrey Kneller (Lübeck 1646/9 - London 1723), signed lower right: G. Kneller. [GK as monogram], 1699. A three-quarter-length portrait of a man, turned to the right, gazing at the spectator, seated, before a stone archway, his left arm resting on window ledge, right hand on his knee, holding wand of office as Master of the Household, wearing dark grey coat, white shirt frilled at the neck and cuffs with a brown cloak draped over his knees around back and over left arm; very long thick curly brown wig. The sitter was the second son of Sir Henry Felton, 2nd Bt (d.1690), and Susannah Tollemache, third daughter of Sir Lionel Tollemache, 2nd Bt, of Helmingham. Husband of Lady Elizabeth Howard, second daughter of the 3rd Earl of Suffolk, by his second marriage, to Barbara Villiers. Father of Elizabeth Felton, who married, as his second wife, John Hervey, later 1st Earl of Bristol (1665-1751). He died 3 March 1708/9.
Provenance
The entry in John Hervey’s ‘Book of Expences’ for 10 June 1699 reads: “Paid Sir Godfrey Kneller for Sir T. ffeltons picture & frame, £35” (Diary, 1894, p.160); thence by descent and inheritance; on the death of the 4th Marquess (1863-1951), valued for probate; accepted by HM Treasury in lieu of tax and transferred to the National Trust in 1956.
Credit line
Ickworth, The Bristol Collection (acquired through the National Land Fund and transferred to The National Trust in 1956)
Marks and inscriptions
Sir Thos.Felton, Father to Countess of Bristol
Makers and roles
Sir Godfrey Kneller (Lübeck 1646 - London 1723), artist
References
Farrer 1908 Edmund Farrer, Portraits in Suffolk Houses (West), 1908, no. 29 Collins Baker 1912 C. H. Collins Baker, Lely and the Stuart Portrait Painters, London, 1912, vol.II, p.172, no.35 Stewart 1983 J. Douglas Stewart, Sir Godfrey Kneller, Oxford, 1983, p.105, no.273 & p.194