Important British Paintings 1500-1850

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Lot 11
  • 11

Giles Hussey 1710-1788

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Description

  • Giles Hussey
  • Portrait of a boy, probably John Wolffe (1743-1758)
  • oil on canvas
Half length, seated at his writing desk, wearing a blue damask coat with fur cuffs and a cream waistcoat, holding a book 

Catalogue Note

The sitter is probably one of the three grandsons of William Wolffe, who married Frances Weston of Sutton Place, a descendant of the agriculturalist Sir Richard Weston. Both William and his grandson, John, were painted by Hussey. 

The present work is probably the missing portrait of John Wolffe by Hussey which depicted him at age eleven and was signed and dated 1754 on the reverse (see Frederic Harrison, Annals of an Old Manor House, Sutton Place, Guildford, 1893, p. 162). It is certainly the picture shown still hanging in the Hall at Sutton Place in 1914 (see Country Life, 7 February 1914, p. 204).

Giles Hussey studied in Italy for seven years, returning to England in 1737. By 1742 he was established in London and painted a number of portraits, specialising in drawings in profile. Examples of his portraiture in oils include a portrait of Sir John Swinburne and a portrait of William Meredith.