Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 3rd/7th Baronet Acland of Columb-John MP (1722-1785)
Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (Plympton 1723 - London 1792)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1767
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1499 x 1232 mm (59 x 48 ½ in)
Order this imageCollection
Killerton, Devon
NT 922308
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 3rd/7th Baronet Acland of Columb-John MP (1722-1785) by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), 1767. He was the son of Sir Hugh Acland, 6th Bt and married Elizabeth Dyke. A portrait of a young man, seated in a landscape, turned slightly to the right, gazing to the right, legs crossed, right over left, his gloved right hand holding a glove and a riding-crop, his left hand stroking the head of a dog, which is on the right gazing up at him, its chin resting on his legs. He blue eyes and wears a dark blue hunting coat with gilt buttons and frogging and a dark plum-coloured waistcoat with gilt buttons, buff knee-length breeches and dark-brown riding boots. Trees on the left and right and a cloudy sky, mainly on the right.
Provenance
Sat for in 1766–67, and paid (70 guineas) for, on or after 6 February 1767; thence by descent at Killerton until World War II, when removed to Sprydon, where it remained until purchased from the family in July 1997 by private treaty with a 75% grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Credit line
Killertion, The Acland Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (Plympton 1723 - London 1792), artist
References
Catalogue of the Third and Concluding Special Exhibition of National Portraits, commencing with the fourth year of the reign of George the Third and ending with the year MDCCCLXVII. South Kensington Museum. April 13, 1868., No.848 Graves and Cronin 1899-1901 Algernon Graves and W.V.Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 4 vols, London 1899-1901, i, 6 Loan Collection of Works by Early Devon Painters born before the year 1800, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, 1932, No.260. Waterhouse 1941 Ellis K. Waterhouse, Reynolds, London, 1941, 59. Acland, 1981: Lady Acland. A Devon family: the story of the Aclands. London: Phillimore, 1981., p.18: (identifying the hound as a staghound from the North Devon pack), pl. VI, and colour cover of dustjacket. Mannings 2000: David Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds: A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings. The Subject Pictures catalogued by Martin Postle, New Haven & London 2000, p.58. "39. ACLAND, Sir Thomas 3rd Bt (1722-85) fig.890 KILLERTON, THE NATIONAL TRUST (KIL/P/074/T) 125 x 99cm PROVENANCE: By descent to Sir Francis Dyke Acland, Bt.; acquired for the NT with assistance of The Heritage Lottery Fund, 1997. EXHIBITED: South Kensington 1868 (848); R.A.1882 (246); Exeter 1932 (260). LITERATURE: Graves and Cronin i, 6; W 59. ENGRAVED: S W Reynolds (S Cousins). Painted probably 1766-67. Seated in a dark blue hunting coat with gold buttons and gold embroidered button holes; dark plum-coloured waistcoat, also with gold buttons; buff breeches, dark brown boots, whip in right hand, left hand stroking a dog. Blue eyes. Sir Thomas was Master of the North Devon Staghounds for nearly 30 years. Waterhouse considered this the better of the two velrions (cf. next entry). The choice of pose and setting was probably significant. Alastair Laing points out that the picture must have been painted when Sir Thomas was up in London as a somewhat reluctant MP, voting against the Land Tax (letter to the compiler)." p.57: "38-40. ACLAND, Sir Thomas, 3rd Bt (1722-85) DOCUMENTATION: There are appointments with the Thomas Acland [sic] in May 1766: 6 (at two o'clock), 12 and 13 (both at nine), with a cancelled appointment on May 10 (at ten). Further appointments are recorded in 1767: Feb 6, Apr.1 and 6, and May 12 (all at ten o'clock). There are cencelled appointments on Feb 6 (midday) and 11 (at ten). Four appointments are recorded in 1768: Feb.10 (at ten), Mar. 2 (ten-thirty), Apr.25 (two-thirty) and 28 (at nine). Although Graves & Cronin say Sir Thomas sat in 1772, in fact there is just one appontment on 5 June (at two), not necessarily a sitting though of course it might have been for corrections or minor alterations. An appointment the previous day (no time indicated) is cancelled. On the accounts page opposite 2 May 1768, Reynolds jotted Sir Thomas's address 'at Killerton near Exeter.' Three payments are recorded in the Ledger. The first, 12 Mat 1766 for 40 (probably ggns); the second on or after 6 Frb.1767 for (70 (probably gns); and a further 30 'in full' (probably gns.) on 26 Apr, 1768 (Cormack 1970, 108, 109). These payments do not square with known ;pictures quite as straightforwardly as Graves & Cronin assume, but 70 gns was the full price for a helf-length and matches the hunting picture listed as 39 below [Killerton, NT]. Probably the remaining 70 gns. corresponded to two sums of 35 each for the earlier bust (38) [untraced] and for the version at Saltram of the hunting portrait (40). Killerton House, Devon, 2000 [The National Trust] 2000, pp.14-15: "THE DRAWING ROOM ABOVE SECOND FIREPLACE Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 7th Bt (1722-85), by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-92). The builder of Killerton. He is shown in the blue coat of the North Devon Staghounds, of which he was Master for nearly 30 years, and with one of his hounds. Bought by the National Trust with the help of a Heritage Lottery Grant." Illus p.35. Caption to illustration: "Sir Thomas Acland, 7th Bt. who rebuilt the house in 1778-9; painted in hunting clothes by Joshua Reynolds (Drawing Room)"