John Wootton

Mrs. Ashton Tennyson d'Eyncourt, Queens Gate, London;
By whom sold, London, Sotheby's, 30 June 1926, lot 112, for 320 gns. to Ellis and Smith;
With Knoedler, by 1928;
Percy R. Pyne, Rivington House, Roslyn, Long Island;
William de Krafft;
By whom sold, London, Sotheby's, 29 November 1963, lot 60, for £6,400, to Leggatt;
Acquired by the father of the present owner.

The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's. UNCONDITIONAL AND WITHOUT PREJUDICE Structural Condition The canvas has been sympathetically lined some time ago and the lining is still ensuring a secure and stable structural support and has not adversely affected the surface textures and impasto. Paint Surface The paint surface has an even varnish layer and inspection under ultra-violet light shows minimal retouchings, the majority of which are thin lines highlighting the contours of the figures and horses and in particular some of the horses' legs. The most concentrated retouchings are on the blue dress of the woman riding side saddle on the left of the composition and also on the legs of her horse. Other small, scattered retouchings are visible under ultra-violet light. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in good and stable condition with much of the fine detail being well-preserved. It is very encouraging to find so little evidence of over-cleaning in the past.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This magnificent hunting scene probably dates from the late 1730's or early 40s when Wootton was at the height of his powers, and relates closely to the important grand cycles which he painted for his most esteemed aristocratic patrons, many of which remain in the houses for which they were painted today. Rightly regarded the finest sporting artist of his generation, and indeed one of the finest landscape painters in England at this time, nowhere is Wootton's mastery and versatility shown to better effect than in these great hunting scenes.  Underpinned with the stoic ideals found in the seventeenth century classical antecedents, brilliantly adapted by Wootton for the demands of the Augustan age, they represent some of the artist's finest and most original work.

The early history of this paintings commission is as yet untraced and when it was sold at Sotheby's in 1926 by Mrs Tennyson d'Eyncourt the identity of the sitters was not known. However there are a number of distinct features about the painting which provide clues for a possible identification. The composition hinges on a group of elegantly dressed figures shown to the left of the painting, where a gentleman in a red coat is pointing to a saddled grey hunter and looking towards an elegantly dressed lady in blue riding habit, mounted on a bay hunter. Behind her two further ladies are mounted on horseback, whilst to their left sits a mounted gentleman holding a hunting whip. There were several ladies in the early eighteenth century who took a serious interest in the sport of hunting. Diana Draper is recorded as a reckless rider to hounds, acting as whipper-in to her father William Draper, an early Master of Foxhounds in Yorkshire. A more prominent female figure in the hunting field was Lady Henrietta Harley, Countess of Oxford, who Wootton depicted out hunting in several paintings, one of which was with Agnews in the late 1950s. Comparison with that portrait shows the sitter in a similarly elaborate riding habit, but otherwise she appears to share little in common with the figure depicted here, and as Lady Henrietta's husband did not share her enthusiasm for the sport she seems an unlikely candidate for this mixed gathering.  Another important female participant was Mary, Lady Churchill, daughter of Sir Robert Walpole by his mistress Maria Skerrett. However, a comparison with Wootton's fine painting of her out hunting at the Tate Gallery bears equally little support for her as the likely sitter. Moreover the hunt depicted here is on a far larger scale than any in which she would have participated. 

More telling, however, is the mounted young gentleman to the side of this female group, who on close inspection can be seen wearing the star and sash of the Garter, as well as piercing blue eyes. Of Wootton's known patrons, who would have been the right age at this date, three men seem to stand out as likely candidates for the identity of this aristocrat. The first is Charles Lennox, 2^nd Duke of Richmond (1701-1750), who was made a Knight of the Garter in 1726. A keen huntsman, who became master of the Charlton Hunt, Richmond was also a great patron of the arts, who commissioned Wootton for a series of six hunting paintings at Goodwood; portraits of his favourite hunters with views of the park beyond, and engaged Lord Burlington to build a hunting lodge for the Charlton in the grounds. He was the grandson of King Charles II, an enthusiastic and talented cricketer, and in 1719 married Lady Sarah Cadogan (1705-1751), daughter of William, 1^st Earl Cadogan.  It is not known, however, whether Sarah was a keen hunter herself, and no painting by Wootton is known to feature her. The second is William Cavendish, 3^rd Duke of Devonshire (1698-1755), who was invested as a Knight of the Garter in 1733, and married Catherine Hoskins (d.1777) in 1718. Wootton painted a number of works for Devonshire at Chatsworth, including a View of Old Newmarket with figures and horses on the Heath, and a Portrait of the 3^rd Duke of Devonshire's racehorse Scamp. From a family of renowned patrons, Devonshire was also a founding governor of the Foundling Hospital, in London, which became a great centre for British art. Despite this he and his wife's commitment to hunting is not recorded, and the identification would merely be speculative.

The most likely candidates therefore, are Wootton's great patrons Charles Spencer, 3^rd Duke of Marlborough (1706-1758), and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Trevor, 2^nd Baron Trevor, whom he married in 1732. Marlborough was responsible for the commission of the great series of canvases by Wootton of circa 1733-4 which adorn the Hunting Hall at Althorp (now known as the Wootton Hall), and the artist also painted two landscape overmantels after Gaspar Dughet for him at Blenheim Palace, which were probably commissioned in 1746 when the Gallery there was converted into the Long Library, as well as hunting scenes and a depiction of the Battle of Blenheim. Marlborough was invested with the Garter in 1741, at the age of thirty five, and a facial comparison with known portraits of him from this period bear some resemblance.  Moreover Marlborough's wife Elizabeth was a known sportswoman, and a small picture showing both the Duke and Duchess out hunting, which was sold in these rooms on 18^th November 1970, supports this identification. It shows the Duke in a red hunting jacket, wearing the star of the Garter, standing by a plinth whilst his wife is seated side saddle on a chestnut hunter to the left, in a blue and gold trim riding habit very similar to that worn by the lady in the present picture. A similar riding habit can again be seen worn by a mounted lady in Wootton's painting of A Hunting Party by the Ruins of Rievaulx Abbey (New Haven, Yale Centre for British Art), in which the sitters are unidentified.

Wootton was regarded by his contemporaries as without rival as a sporting artist, and he enjoyed a network of patronage that seems to have been unaffected by family or party loyalties. His Royal benefactors included George II and his estranged son, Frederick, Prince of Wales, whilst Sir Robert Walpole, who commissioned him for paintings to decorate the walls of both Houghton Hall and Downing Street, was as happy to patronise the artist as were members of the Opposition, whilst Walpole's son, Horace, not usually known for agreeing with his father on such matters, thought his work of 'very capital manner', admiring the way 'he both drew and coloured with consummate skill, fire and truth'.¹ The younger Walpole was even moved to comment that Wootton's landscapes 'approached towards Gaspar Poussin and sometimes imitated happily the glow of Claude Lorrain'. This remarkable reputation was attested to by George Vertue, who noted that the artist 'was in great vogue & favour with many persons of y^e greatest quality'.² Included among Wootton's most notable patrons were the Dukes of Beaufort, Devonshire, Newcastle and Bedford, as well as the Dukes of Bolton, Rutland, Richmond and Leeds, the munificent Edward Harley, 2^nd Duke of Oxford, who commissioned numerous pictures for Wimpole Hall, and the influential banker, Henry Hoare, at Stourhead.

1. H. Walpole, Anecdotes of Painting in England, vol. IV, London 1762-1771, pp. 119-120.
2. G. Vertue, 'Notebooks, Volume III', Walpole Society, vol. XXII, Oxford 1934, p. 34.