Lemuel Francis Abbott circa 1760-1802

Probably acquired by Sir Francis Baring, 3rd Bt., and 1st Baron Northbrook (1796-1866);
By descent to his son, Thomas Baring, 1st Earl Northbrook;
Thence by descent to his son, Francis Baring, 2nd Earl of Northbrook, who married Florence Anita Eyre, by whose executors sold, Christie's, 12th October 1945, lot 1, bt. Spink

This superlative portrait of an English hero is probably the finest version by Abbott of the ‘Nelson type’ remaining in private hands.

Nelson sat to Abbott twice.  The first time was in 1797 for the portrait which Nelson gave to his friend, Captain William Locker, Governor of Greenwich Hospital.  Nelson was convalescing from the amputation of his right arm which was necessary after a musket ball had shattered his arm during an action at Santa Cruz on 25^th July 1797.  The amputated stump soon became infected leaving Nelson with ‘scarcely any intermission of pain, day or night, for three months after his return to England’ (Robert Southey, The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson, 1813, p.115) and it is a measure of Nelson’s fortitude that he was able to sit for a portrait at all.  The wound was still remarkably painful, and it is noticeable in Captain Locker’s portrait how drawn and pained Nelson’s expression looks.  Over the course of the next few years Abbott reproduced the Nelson type many times, and it is possible to chart a gradual process of ‘adonising’.  As Abbott warmed to his theme, so too Nelson appeared visibly more healthy, virile and heroic, culminating in the present particularly fine example of Abbot’s output.   Nelson sat to Abbott for a second portrait which Nelson gave to Lady Nelson.

The present work was sold at Christie’s in 1945 on the death of Florence, Countess of Northbrook, and the portrait must surely have passed by descent through the Northbrooks who were a family of distinguished naval pedigree.  Sir Francis Baring, 1^st Baron Northbrook, was First Lord of the Admiralty 1849-52, and it is likely that Northbrook was keen to acquire a portrait of the most famous admiral of his age.  The painting must have then passed to his son, Thomas, 1st Earl of Northbrook, who also held office as First Lord of the Admiralty 1880-85, and from there to Francis Baring, 2nd Earl of Northbrook, who married as his second wife, Florence Anita Eyre.

The present painting captures the essence of Nelson's charisma and the ‘Nelson touch’ which swept through both the navy and the whole of England as the Battle of Trafalgar approached.