William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (1738-1809) (after Reynolds)
John Powell (fl.1769-1785)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1782
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1422 x 1092 mm (56 x 43 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Dunham Massey, Cheshire
NT 932291
Caption
William Henry Cavendish Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland was the brother of Lady Henrietta Cavendish Bentinck, wife of the 5th Earl of Stamford (of Dunham Massey). He married Lady Dorothy Cavendish, daughter of William 4th Duke of Devonshire in 1766. He held numerous official and governmental posts, culminating in his becoming Prime Minister in 1783, and again in 1807. He played an important role in the passing of the Act of Union with Ireland in 1798. The original is at Welbeck Abbey, in the Cavendish Bentinck collection. John Powell was recorded as Reynolds’s assistant in 1778, and was known to have also copied Reynolds’s pictures in small.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (1738-1809) (after Reynolds) by John Powell (fl.1769 – 1785), 1782. A three-quarter-length portrait of a man, turned to the left, gazing to the left, seated in a red upholstered armchair, holding some papers with his left hand and his cheek leaning on his right hand. Dressed in dark crimson velvet coat and breeches, with white stockings, Short powdered wig, tied at the back with a black ribbon. Architectural setting with pillard portico on the left, with view of trees and sky. On the desk are two bronze statuettes, one of Samson holding the jawbone of an ass, the other appears to be a boxer. The brother of Henrietta Cavendish-Bentinck, wife of the 5th Earl of Stamford. Identified in an inventory of 1787 as a copy painted in 1782 by Powell after Reynolds.
Provenance
Bequeathed to the National Trust with the house, estate and all the contents of Dunham Massey by Roger Grey, 10th Earl of Stamford (1896 - 1976)
Credit line
Dunham Massey, The Stamford Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
John Powell (fl.1769-1785), artist after Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (Plympton 1723 - London 1792), artist