Shrubland Park, Suffolk, England - Country House Sale

/

Lot 300
  • 300

After Benjamin West, P.R.A. 1738-1820

Estimate
2,000 - 3,000 GBP
Log in to view results
bidding is closed

Description

  • Benjamin West, P.R.A.
  • Portrait of William Middleton (170-1785), of Crowfield, South Carolina, and Crowfield Hall, Suffolk
  • Oil on canvas, unstretched
  • 77 by 64 cm.; 30¼ by 25¼ in.
Half length, wearing a blue coat and gold waistcoat

Catalogue Note

William Middleton was born in South Carolina and inherited estates both in America and in England.  He married Sarah, daughter of Morton Wilkinson of South Carolina.  In 1754 he moved to England, settling at Crowfield Hall in Suffolk.  His eldest son bought Shrubland Park in 1798.

This painting is based on a three-quarter length portrait by West still owned by the sitter's descendants and now on loan to the Middleton Place Foundation, Charleston, South Carolina.  The identification of the sitter as William Middleton is supported by Edmund Farrer in his typescript for Portraits in Suffolk Homes (East), and by a later family inventory in which William Middleton's grandson, Sir William Fowle Middleton, Bt., is quoted.  West also painted several other portraits of members of the Middleton family (see H. von Erffa and Allen Staley, The Portraits of Benjamin West, 1986, pp. 529-532).