Harry Grey, 4th Earl of Stamford (1715-1768)
Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (Plympton 1723 - London 1792)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1757 (sittings recorded)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
(49 x 39 in) 1245 x 990 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Dunham Massey, Cheshire
NT 932364
Caption
Although this portrait is inscribed as being of the 3rd Earl (who died in 1739), it in fact represents the 4th Earl of Stamford (of Dunham Massey). The sitter had numerous appointments (as Lord Grey) with Reynolds in 1757. A first payment of 12 guineas (the rate for a head-and-shoulders at this period) was made on 15th July 1757, but confusingly, no second payment was recorded. Reynolds had used exactly the same pose one or two years earlier, for Sir John Molesworth, 5th Bt.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, George Harry Grey, originally misidentified. Should be Harry Grey, 4th Earl of Stamford. The detailed description of this portrait identifies the sitter as 4th Earl, by Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (Plympton 1723 - London 1792), inscribed lower left, in yellow: Harry Third Earl of / Stamford: ob: 1739.(erroneous), 1757. A three-quarter-length portrait of a young man, turned to the left, gazing at the spectator wearing a brown coat with red turn-back cuffs all with gold frogging, an embroidered red waistcoat also with gold braid and frogging, into which the sitter’s right hand is tucked; his left hand is at his side, holding the hilt of his sword. White powdered wig, tied at the back with a black ribbon. There is are trees and shrubs on the left and right, and a cloudy sky in the centre background.
Provenance
The sitter had appointments (as Lord Grey) with Reynolds in 1757, on 8th & 11th February; 1st & 3rd March; 7th, 11th, 13th, 21st, 26th, 28th, & 29th April, and on 2nd & 4th May. A first payment of 12 guineas (the rate for a head-and-shoulders at this period) was made on 15th July 1757. No second payment, to make the price up to 24 guineas (the normal rate for a ‘half’ – i.e. three-quarter-length is recorded, but nor is any head-and-shoulders portrait of the 5th Earl known – it seems likely that the artist just failed to record the final payment); thence, presumably, by descent and inheritance, though – curiously – this portrait does not seem to appear either in any of the inventories of Dunham Massey, or in either of the Foley Grey sales of Stamford pictures from Enville Hall (* cf. P/98, which has an inscription of the same form, which was also previously unrecorded; and in which the sitter is likewise misidentified – as the 2nd Earl rather than the 3rd); 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)
Marks and inscriptions
(labelled)
Makers and roles
Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (Plympton 1723 - London 1792), artist