Johann Zoffany, R.A.

Commissioned by the sitter, Sir Robert Preston;
By inheritance, along with Culross Abbey House, to his cousin, The Hon. Robert Preston Bruce (1851-1893), second son of the 8th Earl of Elgin;
By inheritance to his elder brother, Victor Bruce, 9th Earl of Elgin (1849-1917);
By descent to his son, Edward Bruce, 10th Earl of Elgin (1881-1968);
By descent to his second son, The Hon. James Bruce (1927-2013).

In overall good condition. The painting has had a recent and rather rigid relining and has been cleaned and restored. Inspection under ultra violet light reveals no major damages, only a few local spot retouchings, the varnish appears very blotchy and uneven which makes any early restoration hard to read. There are visible pentimenti around the trunk of the tree on the left. The painting is offered in a gilt Carlo Marratta frame in good overall condition.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

A merchant and philanthropist, affectionately known as 'Floating Bob', Sir Robert Preston was the fifth son of Sir George Preston of Valleyfield, West Fife. As a young man he became a sea captain in East India Company’s service, always a lucrative post on account of the privileges it afforded for private trade, and amassed a vast personal fortune. Retiring from active trade in 1777 he established himself in the City as an insurance broker and ship owner, and was appointed a director of the East India Company. He became an Elder Brother of Trinity House, which controlled the merchant shipping in the port of London, and served as Member of Parliament for Dover from 1784 to 1790, and Cirencester from 1792 to 1806. Preston owned houses in Essex and a London home in Downing Street. To add to his already vast fortune, in 1800 he inherited the baronetcy and estates of Valleyfield from his brother, Sir Charles Preston (1735-1800), including Valleyfield House (now destroyed) and Culross Abbey. He set about improving his Scottish estates and commissioned Sir Humphrey Repton to landscape the gardens and parkland around Valleyfield, traces of which remain today, thought the house is gone. He also developed local salt works and coal mines.

Sir Robert Preston was one of three men who supported Zoffany in his efforts to go to India in 1783, along with Jacob Wilkinson and John Maddison, and stood as one of the guarantors for his application to the Court of Directors of the East India Company. Zoffany was given leave to go to India on the proviso that he was not to go ‘in any of the company’s ships’, and a dispatch was sent to Bengal in January informing the authorities there that the Court had ‘permitted Sir John Zoffany [sic] to proceed to India to exercise his profession of a portrait painter’.¹ The passage to India in anything other than a Company ship could more than double the journey time, and it was probably Preston, by then a Senior Director, who helped the artist flout the Court’s ruling and pick up a berth as a midshipman on the East Indiaman Lord Macartney (which Preston was the principal managing owner of) bound for Madras.

Zoffany painted portraits of all three of his sponsors for the venture to India, and it seems likely that this portrait was painted shortly before he left for the Indies as a thank you for Preston’s support. Certainly it is very much in the style of Zoffany’s portraits done in the early 1780, between his return from Italy and his departure for India. Zoffany painted two further portraits of Preston circa 1790-93, following his return to England, both full length, seated by a window, one with an extensive view of British shipping in India beyond (Elgin Collection), and the other depicting the sitter in the uniform of the Elder Brethren of Trinity House (sold in these rooms, 10 July 1985, lot 55); as well as a portrait of Preston’s wife, Elizabeth, whom he had married in April 1790 (recorded in the artist’s estate sale, Messrs. Robins, 8 May 1811, lot 80).

We are grateful to Charles Greig for endorsing the attribution following first hand inspection and for suggesting a date of circa 1781-82.  

1. P. Treadwell, Johan Zoffany. Artist and adventurer, London 2009, p. 330