Lot 177
  • 177

Henry Bone R.A.

Estimate
6,000 - 8,000 GBP
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Description

  • Henry Bone R.A.
  • Portrait of Lady Elizabeth Alicia Maria Herbert, later Countess of Carnarvon (1752-1826) and her son Charles Herbert (1774-1808)
  • signed lower left: HBone [sic] 1801.; further signed and inscribed on the verso: The / Rt Honble Lady Eliz Wyndham / Countess of Carnarvon & her eldest son Henry Lord / Porchester - / Painted Janr 1801 by Henry Bone / Enamel Painter to His Royal Highness / the Prince of Wales after a picture by the late Sir Joshua Reynolds P.R.A. / painted in 1776  
  • enamel, held in a fine gilt-wood frame, elaborately decorated with foliage and an Earl's coronet

Provenance

By descent in the sitter's family;
The Rev. Robert Herbert, by 1828;
With Leo Schidlof, by 1954;
Acquired by the great-grandfather of the present owner soon after

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, 1801, no. 727

Literature

Smith, J.T. Nollekens and his Times, 2 vols, London 1828;
The Apollo Magazine
, November 1954, p. 153;
R. Walker, 'Henry Bone's Pencil Drawings', The Walpole Society, 1999, p. 318, no. 91;
D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds, A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, Yale 2000, p. 251, no. 881b

Catalogue Note

Henry Bone was the greatest enamel painter of his generation. He held a number of important posts including being appointed official enamel painter' to the Prince of Wales in 1801 and then in 1809 to the King. In 1811 he was elected a full member of the Royal Academy. The present enamel is dated to 1801 and is a copy after Sir Joshua Reynolds oil painting of circa 1776.1 Bone's squared preparatory drawing is held at the National Portrait Gallery, London.2 

The enamel depicts Lady Elizabeth Herbert who was the daughter of Charles, 1st Earl of Egremont. In 1771 she married Henry Herbert (1741-1811), who was created Lord Porchester in 1780 and Earl of Carnarvon in 1793. Although Bone's inscription on the reverse identifies the infant as the couple's eldest son, Henry Hebert (1772-1833), on account of the boy's youth, it is thought more likely that he is in fact Henry's younger brother the Hon. Charles Herbert (1774-1808). Charles married Bridget, daughter of John, 5th Viscount Torrington and having joined the navy was drowned at sea in September 1808. He left a daughter, who later married Sir Francis Vincent, 10th Bt. (1802-1880).

1. Mannings 2000, pp. 251/2, no. 881, fig. 1184 (Private Collection)
2. Walker 1999, p. 318, no. 91