Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 10th Bt MP (1787-1871)
William Owen, RA (Ludlow 1769 – London 1825)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1818
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
2489 x 1473 mm (98 x 58 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Killerton, Devon
NT 922289
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 10th Bt MP by William Owen (1769-1825). A full-length portrait of the son of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 9th Bt (1752-1794) and Henrietta Hoare (d.1841). He is standing, turned alightly to the right, head turned to the left, and gazing to the left, his arms folded on his chest and holding a paper in his right hand, on the election hustings at Exeter in 1818. He has short brown hair and is wearing a knee-length green coat, grey trousers and has a white stock. An extensive landscape beyond and stormy cloudy sky. He married in 1808, Lydia Elizabeth Hoare (1786-1856) the daughter of Henry Hoare of Mitcham Grove, Surrey. Under the patriarchal rule of Sir Thomas and his wife Lydia, Killerton took on a new life, both as a family home and as a centre of political and philanthropic activity.
Provenance
Presented by ‘the Gentlemen of Devonshire’ to Lady Acland after the 1818 election and at Killerton ever since; accepted in lieu by HM Government and transferred to the National Trust in 1995.
Credit line
Killerton, The Acland Collection (accepted in lieu by HM Government and transferred to The National Trust in 1995)
Makers and roles
William Owen, RA (Ludlow 1769 – London 1825), artist
References
Royal Academy, 1819, No.201. Acland, 1981: Lady Acland. A Devon family: the story of the Aclands. London: Phillimore, 1981., pp.55-56 & pl.X. Killerton House, Devon, 2000 [The National Trust] 2000, pp.19-20: "THE STAIRCASE ON STAIRS A huge full-length portrait of the Great Sir Thomas, 10th Bt (1787-1871), by William Owen (1769-1825). It was painted in 1818, after Sir Thomas's only election defeat in a long Parliamentary career, and shows him standing near the hustings at the castle grounds in Exeter with a speech in his hand. Thia picture was known in later generations as 'Grandpa in a Thunderstorm'." Illus, p.39: Caption to illustration "The 'Great Sir Thomas' : Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 10th Bt, on the election hustings at Exeter; painted by William Owen in 1818 (Staircase)."