Sir Joshua Reynolds P.R.A. 1723-1792

full length, standing in a landscape, wearing a blue tunic, a dog by his side

Painted for Sackville Tufton, 8th Earl of Thanet, the sitter's father;
By descent to Sir Henry Tufton, 1st Baron Hothfield;
Henry Hirsch, his sale, Christie's, 12th June 1931, lot 18, bt. Thistlethwaite for 1995 gns;
By descent to Eva Sardinia Borthwick-Norton, by whose executors bequeathed to the Royal Scottish Academy

British Institution, 1833, no.36

W. Cotton, A Catalogue of the Portraits painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A., 1857, Vol. III, p.75;
A.Graves and W.V. Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A., 1899, Vol III, p.991;
Sir W. Armstrong, Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1900, p.233;
E.K. Waterhouse, Reynolds, 1941, p.69;
David Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds: A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, 2000, Text Volume, p.450, no.1776; Plates Volume, fig.1201

The sitter was the third son of Sackville Tufton, 8th Earl of Thanet, and his wife, Mary, daughter of Lord John Sackville, second son of Lionel, 1st Duke of Dorset.  He was educated at Westminster School and matriculated at Jesus College, Cambridge in 1798.  He was M.P. for Appleby from 1796 until his death on 28th May 1799.  He was a member of Brooks's and carried on his family's Whig politics.  The portrait probably dates from 1776.  Reynolds also painted other members of his family.  A portrait of his mother was painted in 1770-71 and there is also a portrait of the Tufton children from c.1766-67 which is now at Petworth.