Giovanni Battista Lampi

Commissioned in 1789 by the sitter, Lord Charles Whitworth, 1st Earl of Whitworth;
The Radziwill Collection, Château d´Ermenonville;
Their sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 8 March 1933, lot 13;
Private Collection, Europe;
By whom sold, Paris, Christie's, 14 December 2004, lot 213.

N. Michajlovic, Russian Portraits, Saint Petersburg 1905-1909, vol. 5, cat. no. 15;
F. Mazzocca, R. Pancheri & A. Casagrande, Un ritrattista nell´Europa delle corti Giovanni Batista Lampi 1751–1830, exhibition catalogue, Trent 2001, pp. 65-67, reproduced from an engraving fig. 58 (as untraced).

ENGRAVED
By Pichler 

The picture is in very good condition, with just one small loss of paint in the lower left of the picture. There is otherwise no extant damage to the picture, and the head and costume are particularly finely preserved. The picture has a sensitive old relining and examination under ultraviolet light reveals only some very minor retouching in the lower two inches of the picture, and along the right hand edge of the canvas. There is some older retouching, which does not show under ultraviolet light, in the background, upper left, which is visible under close inspection. There is an old, opaque varnish overall. Held in a gilt plaster and wood frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The eldest son of Sir Charles Whitworth and a man ‘highly favoured by nature’,¹ Charles Whitworth was one of the leading diplomats of the Napoleonic era. In 1785 he was appointed British Ambassador to Poland, then still under the nominal rule of the ill-fated Stanislaus II Poniatowski (1732-1798), and in 1788 he became Envoy-Extraordinary and Minister-Plenipotentiary at St. Petersburg. Whitworth spent twelve years in Russia and was well received at the court of Catherine the Great. As one contemporary wrote, ‘at every period of his life Queens, Duchesses, and Countesses have showered on him their regard’,² and the Empress of Russia was no exception. In 1795, at the height of the French Revolutionary Wars, Whitworth was instrumental in securing a preliminary treaty with the Czarina securing Russian military assistance to Britain and her allies, a treaty that was later ratified in 1798 under Catherine’s successor, Czar Paul I, again at the envoy’s solicitation. Whitworth was now at the zenith of his popularity on St. Petersburg, and the Czar petitioned the British government to raise him to the peerage.

In 1800, back in England, Whitworth was made a Privy Councillor, and in 1801 he married the widow of his late close friend John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset. With the death of her first husband the Duchess came into possession of an income of £13,000 a year, as well as Dorset House in London and Knole Park in Kent. In 1802, following the Piece of Amiens, Whitworth was chosen for the important post of Ambassador to Paris, where he was presented to Napoleon, who described his as a ‘fort bel homme’.³ It was in this capacity that Whitworth negotiated British diplomacy in Paris in the build up to the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars, famously being dismissed by Napoleon in a violent tirade at the Tuileries. In 1813 Whitworth was appointed Lord of the Bedchamber to George III, succeeded the Duke of Richmond as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and was created Viscount Whitworth of Adbaston. In 1815 he was elevated to Earl Whitworth and in 1820 retired to Knole.     

This charismatic and commanding portrait was painted in 1789, when both Whitworth and Lampi were in Warsaw working at the court of Stanislaw II. It captures the ambassador’s fine features, so remarked upon by contemporaries, and depicts him resplendent in a crimson fur lined gown. In 1791 Lampi also travelled to St. Petersburg, and it was probably through Whitworth that he was introduced to the Royal Court, many of whose portraits he painted, including the Empress (Hermitage, St. Petersburg), Prince Platon Zubov (Hermitage, St. Petersburg), Count Aleksei Musin-Pushkin (Hermitage, St. Petersburg), Prince Alexander Bezborodko, Grand Chancellor of Russia (Hermitage, St. Petersburg), and Maria Fëdorovna (State Museum, Pavlovsk Palace), as well as the commander of Catherine’s armies, General Grigory Potemkin (Hermitage, St. Petersburg).

1. N. Wraxall, Memoirs, 1772-1784, London 1884.
2. Ibid.
3. Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène, ed. 1862, p. 104, April, May, July 1817.