Estimated Price:

   $   

Realized Price:

   $   

What is this symbol? This symbol indicates that this auction hose has verified this price result.

Log in or subscribe to view price data

full length, standing, leaning on his bay charger, wearing a general's uniform of a dark blue coat with red and gold facings

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Henry Pelham, 5th Duke of Newcastle (1811-1864) by 1858;
By descent to Henry Pelham, Earl of Lincoln, by whom sold, Christie's, 31st March 1939, lot 47, bt. Agnew's who sold it to C.G. Hoare, 27th May 1943
EXHIBITED

British Institution, 1858, no.181;
Royal Academy, 1879, no.51;
Nottingham, Midland Counties Art Museum, Opening Exhibition, 1879, no.51;
City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Loan Collection of Portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds, George Romney, Thomas Gainsborough, John Hoppner, Sir Henry Raeburn, and Other Artists, 1900, no.55
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

H. Angelo, Reminiscences, Vol.I, 1828, pp.118-119;
A. Graves & W.V. Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1899-1901, Vol.I, p.386, Vol.IV, p.1324;
E.K. Waterhouse, Reynolds, 1941, p.57;
David Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds, A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, 2000, Text Volume, no.1197, Plates Volume, fig.724
CATALOGUE NOTE

This vivid study is one of a small group of authentic preliminary oil sketches by Reynolds which have survived. It is a preparatory sketch for the colossal life size portrait of John Manners, Marquess of Granby, the celebrated commander-in-chief of the British forces in the Seven Years War, which belonged to his defeated French opponent, the Duc de Broglie, and is now at the John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida.

John Manners was the eldest son of John, 3rd Duke of Rutland and his wife, Bridget Sutton. After his education at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, he went on the Grand Tour and was returned as M.P. for Grantham at the age of twenty in 1741. His first military commission was in 1745 as Colonel of a regiment of foot raised in Leicester by his family, when he saw action in Cumberland's campaign against the Jacobites. He continued in his political career and from 1754 until his death represented the borough of Cambridgeshire.

In 1755 he was raised to the rank of Major-General, and became Colonel of the Royal Horse Guards in 1758. He saw action at the outbreak of the Seven Years War in 1758, and commanded the second line of cavalry at the Battle of Minden in 1759. In August of that year, he became the British Commander-in-Chief and worked well with Prince Ferdinand, the commander of the German allies. In 1760 Granby led a charge of British heavy cavalry at Warburg in Westphalia, which in Prince Ferdinand's words 'contributed extremely to the success of the day' when the French were routed. In July 1761 his regiment defended the wooded heights of Kirchdenkern against the French, and eventually routed their forces. It is likely that this portrait portrays Granby at the scene of this great triumph. He returned home in 1763 to a hero's welcome and was admired and respected by both George II and George III, as well as by Lord Chatham. In 1750 he married an heiress, Frances, eldest daughter of Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset. He was succeeded by his second son, Charles, who inherited his grandfather's dukedom in 1779.

There are two early half length portraits of Granby by Reynolds, one dating from c.1756 (Musee Jacquemart-Andre, Paris) and one from c.1758-60 (Private Collection).