Circle of Thomas Gainsborough  "Portrait of Bishop Beilby P...

Estimate

€3,000 - €4,000

Circle of Thomas Gainsborough 

"Portrait of Bishop Beilby Porteus," c 1755, O.O.C., 74cms high x 61cms wide (29" x 24"). (1)

While most portraits of Bishop Beilby Porteous (1731-1809) were done around the turn of the nineteenth century when he was in middle age, or advancing years, this painting is noteworthy for depicting the campaigning abolitionist in his younger years. It was painted probably around the time when Porteous, aged 25, was appointed chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Depicted half-length, wearing clerical robes and a powdered wig, the sitter is turned to one side, his head facing the viewer. The sleeves of his robes are finely painted, as is the entire portrait, which is of high quality. The identity of the artist is not known, but a similar portrait of Porteous was sold in 2019 at Chorleys in Gloucestershire. It had come from the collection of Sir John and Lady Smith, co-founders of the Landmark Trust. The dates and style of Thomas Gainsborough accord with the date and age of the sitter in this portrait, but there were many talented portrait painters active in Britain at this time.

Born in York in 1731, Bielby Porteus was the youngest of 19 children of Elizabeth Jennings and a Scottish planter named Robert Porteus, who had returned to England from Virginia. In 1752, Porteus became a fellow at Christ's College, Cambridge, winning the Seaton prize in 1759 for his poem Death, A Poetical Essay. Ordained a priest in 1757, he was appointed chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Secker. Over the following years, Porteus learned of the appalling conditions endured by slaves in America and the West Indies. Appointed chaplain to King George III, in 1776 he became Bishop of Chester, where he campaigned for the abolition of slavery, including publicly criticising the Church of England for owning slave plantations in Barbados. In the House of Lords he supported Wilberforce's abolition bill. On the advice of William Pitt, Porteus was appointed Bishop of London in 1787. He continued to campaign, until the Slave Trade Act was finally passed in 1807. Deeply conservative, Porteus also campaigned against what he saw as the moral degeneration of English society, as manifested in theatre, revolutionary ideals, and books such as Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason. He promoted the Sunday School movement, the Sunday Observance Act and was a member of the Church Missionary Society. In 1789 he preached a sermon of thanksgiving for the recovery of King George III from a bout of madness. However, he probably did not officiate at services marking the death of Nelson, given the admiral's reputation as an adulterer. Porteus died in 1809, and is buried at St. Mary's Church at Sundridge, near Sevenoaks in Kent.

Dr. Peter Murray, 2023