George Romney

Charles Kindersley-Porcher, Dorchester;
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 15 July 1920, lot 8;
With Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, from whom purchased by the present owners, 16 June 1971.

London, French Gallery, Portraits by British Artists, date unknown, no. 14.

H. Ward and W. Roberts, Romney, 2 vols, London and New York 1904, vol. II, p. 130;
A. Kidson, George Romney, A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings, no. 1085 (to be published by Yale University Press late 2015).

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: George Romney. Portrait of George Redhead. This painting has a strong, fairly old lining and stretcher. The restoration is far more recent. The condition is extremely good throughout, with no sign of past damage of any sort, or of structural instability. The deep browns of the foliage and the background is richly preserved without any premature craquelure or wear. Under ultra violet light there is just a sprinkling of minute surface touches in the face and around the outline of the head. These are minimal adjustments to an almost immaculate paint surface. A few other minor touches can be found in the deepest shadows in the lower right corner. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The sitter was the son of Colonel John Redhead. He entered the East India Company and served as the company's representative at the court of the Nawab of the Carnatic, of whose sons he was appointed guardian by the company.

Redhead sat to Romney in 1777, and eight appointments are recorded between 28 April and 19 June in the artist's sitter-book for that year. He paid 35 guineas for the picture on 9 July, as well as a further £6.9s for a frame by Ansell and 16s for a case. Redhead's father also sat to Romney in 1789, and the two paintings appeared together for sale in these Rooms in 1920. Ward and Roberts provisionally identified the sitter as Thomas Redhead, a merchant of Bengal, and assumed that the documented commissions for a 'Mr Redhead' in 1777 and 1789 were portraits of the same person. The present identification, however, was made when the pictures previously appeared for sale at Sotheby's, at which time it was established that they were two separate sitters, father and son.   

We are grateful to Alex Kidson for his assistance with the cataloguing of this lot.