Lord John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey of Ickworth, PC, MP (1696-1743)
after Jean-Baptiste van Loo (Aix-en-Provence 1684 - Aix-en-Provence 1745)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1741 - circa 1742
Materials
Oil on canvas (oval)
Measurements
851 x 622 mm (33 ½ x 24 ½ in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Ickworth, Suffolk
NT 851786
Caption
This is a reduced version of the full-length by Van Loo, which is also at Ickworth. This oval half-length was probably painted to hang with the pendant depicting his father. Lord Hervey was the eldest son of John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol (1665-1751) and Elizabeth Felton, his second wife. In 1720 he married Mary Lepel, maid-of-honour to the Princess of Wales. He was an intimate of Queen Caroline, becoming Vice-Chamberlain in 1730, and Keeper of the Privy Seal between 1740 and 1742, but afterwards he joined the Opposition. Van Loo and his studio assistant, John Giles Eccardt, seem themselves to have been responsible for a number of portraits of John, Lord Hervey, in various formats. This picture was painted towards the end of Van Loo’s time in England, when he was suffering from ill-health, which would account for the degree of what appears to be studio assistance.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas (oval), Lord John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey of Ickworth, PC, MP (1696-1743), after Jean-Baptiste van Loo (Aix-en-Provence 1684 - Aix-en-Provence 1745), circa 1741 - 42. An oval half-length portrait of a man, turned slightly to the left, gazing at the spectator, seated on a high-backed chair. Long curly grey wig, light brown jacket with silver buttons. White cravat and waistcoat edged with silver. Fur edging to jacket and cuffs.
Provenance
Presumably commissioned by Lord Hervey as a version of Van Loo’s portrait of him painted for his father, to hang with, or in exchange for, the portrait that he got the latter to have painted of himself for him; thence by inheritance and descent to the 4th Marquess (1863-1951), on whose death valued for probate; after which, accepted in lieu of tax by HM Treasury, 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)
Makers and roles
after Jean-Baptiste van Loo (Aix-en-Provence 1684 - Aix-en-Provence 1745) , publisher previously catalogued as attributed to Johann Zoffany, RA (Frankfurt am Main 1733 - Kew 1810), publisher
Exhibition history
Glorious Georges- Hanoverian Succession 300th Anniversary exhibitions at Hampton Court and Kensington Palace, Hampton Court Palace, Surrey, 2014 - 2015 Glorious Georges- Hanoverian Succession 300th Anniversary exhibitions at Hampton Court and Kensington Palace, Kensington Palace, London, 2014 - 2015
References
Farrer 1908 Edmund Farrer, Portraits in Suffolk Houses (West), 1908, no. 90 Kerslake 1977 John Kerslake, Early Georgian Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London 1977 (2 vols), vol.I, p.140; vol. II, pl.378