AFTER SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS | CARICATURE OF THOMAS BRUDENELL-BRUCE, 1ST EARL OF AILESBURY, THE HON. JOHN WARD, JOSEPH LEESON, LATER 2ND EARL OF MILLTOWN, AND JOSEPH HENRY OF STRAFFAN

Possibly Joseph Leeson, 2nd Earl of Milltown (1730-1801), Russborough House, County Wicklow and gifted to Elizabeth, Lady Leitrim (d. 1817).

Inventory, 27th June 1836, 'Caricature by Sir Joshua Reynolds of Lords Milltown, Aylesbury and Dudley and Mr Henry of Straffan – gilt frame' in the Dining Room.

A copy after Sir Joshua Reynolds' painting from 1751 in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin (oil on canvas, 63 x 49 cm.).¹ This was appropriately entitled Four Learned Milordi when exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1986.

Joseph Henry, nephew of the future 1st Earl of Milltown, studies a plan of the Cloaca Maxima, the ambitious sewerage system of Ancient Rome. He and his friends were all part of the circle around Viscount Charlemont in Rome. In this caricature Reynolds has captured their different personalities through their exaggerated physical features. Baron Bruce was reserved and very tall; John Ward more outgoing and well-versed in Classical authors; while young Joseph Leeson was gawky with little conversation.

¹ Inv. no. NGI.736; D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds, A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, New Haven and London 2000, text vol. p. 492, cat. no. 1964, plates vol., p. 155, reproduced fig. 64.