George Romney 1734-1802

Royal Academy, Old Masters, 1879, no.20;
Grafton Gallery, Romney Exhibition, 1900, no.58 

The sitter was the son of Nathaniel Acton of Bramford, and his wife, Caroline, daughter of John Wearg.  He matriculated at New College, Oxford in 1775.  In 1787 he married firstly, Susanna, daughter of Sir Thomas Miller, 5th Bt., of Lavant, near Chichester.  She died in 1789, and in 1791 he married, as his second wife, Penelope, the daughter of the Rev. Sir Richard Rycroft, 1st Bt., of Calton, Yorkshire. 

Nathaniel Lee Acton was made High Sheriff in 1789, and after his death in 1836 was buried with his two wives in the Church of Livermere. He left residences at Livermere Park, Bramford Hall, Baylham Hall, Claydon Hall and Mockbeggars Hall. These properties were left to his sister Harriet Lady Middleton and her only son William, who died without issue leaving Jane Anne Broke his heir. She later married James St Vincent, fourth Lord de Saumarez.  Nathaniel Acton worked closely with Samuel Wyatt in redesigning Livermere Park, and in 1795 the entire house was given a neo-classical facade.

The present work was commissioned as a marriage portrait, together with a portrait of his first wife, which now hangs at the Huntington.  Sittings for this portrait, and that of Susanna Acton, are recorded between December 1786 and May 1787.  On the occasion of his second marriage, the sitter commissioned Romney to paint an ambitious full length portrait of his new wife Penelope.  This work also now hangs at the Huntington.