STUDIO OF JOSHUA REYNOLDS (1723-1792) A Portrait of Captain...

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€20,000 - €30,000

STUDIO OF JOSHUA REYNOLDS (1723-1792) A Portrait of Captain Byron Oil on canvas, 126 x 100cm Provenance : Sale, these rooms, 11 Oct 2016 Lot 459 John Byron (1723-1786) British vice-admiral, the second son of the 4th Lord Byron, and grandfather of the poet, was born on the 8th of November 1723. He joined the navy as a midshipman but would go on to be considered one of the finest sailors in all of England; despite his dogged bad luck for which he received the nickname of 'Foul Weather Jack'. During one of his expeditions he was wrecked on the southern coast of Chile but survived and proceeded to write up his adventures as 'The Narrative of Hon. John Byron, Containing an Account of the Great Distresses' (1768), which his grandson, George Gordon Byron, used in his satirical poem 'Don Juan' (1819-1824). Habitually in action against the French, he was chosen to command a secret British expedition in the Dolphin frigate - one of the first British ships to have a copper sheeted hull - to the Falkland Islands to break into the Spanish trade. Afterwards, he completed the circumnavigation of the globe, claiming various Pacific islands for the Crown. The provenance of the present example is by repute with Torridon House in the Scottish Highlands, the estate, which once belonged to the Duke of Leeds and is now home to the Earl and Countess of Lovelace, is sandwiched between rugged, soaring mountains and the deep blue of a sea loch. The family auctioned the contents of the house in 2015 offering a wonderful collection of furniture, paintings and other works of art to the public. The connection with the Byron family resulted from the marriage between Lord King William who married Augusta Ada Byron, the only legitimate daughter George Gordon, 6th Baron Byron. The Lovelace title was chosen to mark the fact that Ada was, through the families of Byron, Milbanke, Noel and Lovelace, a descendant of the Barons Lovelace of Hurley. This union brought the promise, in marriage settlement, of vast estates in the Midlands and also political advantage, for Adas cousin was Lord Melbourne, the Whig Prime Minister. In this quarter-length portrait Byron is presented in an appropriate manner of attire wearing his captain's undress uniform and a grey wig. He is set against a dark clouded filled background, with a small patch of light blue sky out of which sails a ship from the British Fleet. Byron strikes a formidable presence in this portrait reflecting his many successive years of dedicated and hard service. The numerous long and arduous expeditions is succinctly captured in the line inscribed on the frame, from Byron's poem, Epistle to Augusta, Our grandsires fate of yore /He had no rest at sea. Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) was apprenticed in 1740 to the portrait painter Thomas Hudson, (1701-90) and after early work in his native Devon travelled to Italy in 1749. He returned in 1753 to London and rapidly began to establish himself as a portrait painter, profoundly influenced by his time in Italy. He was the most influential figure of the century in elevating British painting and portraiture which paved the way for a generation of work. Reynolds borrowed poses from the old masters, such as Lord Bryon's strong stance with arms crossed and his left hand holding onto the sword hilt, which dignified the status of the sitter.