THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. | PORTRAIT OF GEORGE CHARLES GARNIER (1739-1819) OF ROOKESBURY PARK, HAMPSHIRE, THREE-QUARTER LENGTH, IN A LANDSCAPE WITH A SPANIEL

Presumably the sitter and by descent;

Reverend William Garnier (1800-63), grandson of the sitter, Rookebsury, Hamphire, by 1833;

By descent to his nephew, John Carpenter Garnier (1839-1926);

His executor's sale, London, Christie's, 27 July 1928, lot 135;

There acquired by P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. Ltd. for £892 10s;

With P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. Ltd., London, until 1955;

By whom anonymously sold, London, Christie's, 20 July 1956, lot 71;

There acquired by Klein for £105;

Private collection, South America;

By whom anonymously sold, London, Sotheby's, 12 June 2003, lot 71;

There acquired by the present collector. 

A.E. Garnier, The Chronicles of the Garniers of Hampshire, Norwich and London 1900, pp. 21-26, reproduced;

E.K. Waterhouse, "Preliminary Check List of Portraits by Thomas Gainsborough," Walpole Society 1948-50, vol. XXXIII, 1953, p. 47;

E.K. Waterhouse, Gainsborough, London 1958, p. 7, cat. no. 303;

R. Baird, "From charitable apothecary to country squire:the Garniers at Rookesbury, Hampshire," The Georgian Group Journal, vol. XXV, 2017, pp. 1-24, reproduced fig 9;

H. Belsey, Thomas Gainsborough: The Portraits, Fancy Pictures and Copies after Old Masters, vol. I, New Haven 2019, pp. 367-8, cat. no. 387, reproduced p. 368. 

The sitter was the only son of George Garnier (1703-1763) and Frances Hopkins, who died in childbirth. Garnier married Margaret Miller of Froyle Place, Hampshire, in 1776 and was appointed Apothecary-General to the Army on 19 September 1763, the year he inherited Rookesbury Estate from his father. Garnier was widely regarded as an intellectual and a consumate socialite, and he often held social events at Rookesbury. Both Waterhouse and Belsey suggest that the painting may have been cut down from a larger canvas, though this would have been done quite early as it is described in 1833 as hanging above a chimney piece at Rookesbury and is illustrated in 1900 in its present state [1] A smaller copy of the work was in the collection of Samuel Taylor (see Belsey under Literature, cat. no. 387a). 

1. Prosser, 1833, unpaginated.