[Handel, George Frideric]--Jennens, Charles (1700-1773, the librettist of Handel's "Messiah").

Charles Jennens wrote the librettos for four of Handel's oratorios: Saul (1738), L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (1740), Messiah (1742) and Belshazzar (1745).  He was also a great patron and friend of the composer, subscribed to his editions and commissioned manuscript full scores of his unpublished works for his own use.  For a portrait of Jennens by Thomas Hudson, see Handel. A Celebration of his Life and Times, edited by Jacob Simon, National Portrait Gallery (1985), no.181. For an autograph letter by Handel to Jennens, see our sale 5 December 2003, lot 90.

Giles Hussey (1710-1788) was an important draughtsman of profile portraits, mainly of Catholic families, and the Young Pretender in particular.  He gave up painting in 1767 and retired to Dorset.  Although Jennens was himself a staunch Protestant, he was, like Hussey, loyal to the deposed House of Stuart, and had several Jacobite friends and beneficiaries. Included in this lot is a copy of the will of William Jennens (1797), referring to Charles Jennens's estate at Gopsall in Leicestershire.

This image is not recorded in the new Dictionary of National Biography (2004).