TILLY KETTLE | PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM EDEN, 1ST BARON AUCKLAND (1744–1814)

In the possession of the sitter;

Francis Seymour, 5th Marquess of Hertford (1812–1884);

Mrs Stevenson Scott, New York, by 1927;

With Mortimer Brandt, New York;

Acquired by Mr and Mrs E.M. Ayers in 1940 for the Art Institute of Zanesville (now the Zanesville Art Centre);

The Zanesville Art Centre, Ohio;

By whom sold, New York, Sotheby’s, 27 January 2006, lot 208.

J.D. Milner, ‘Tilly Kettle. 1735-1786’, in The Walpole Society, vol. XV, Oxford 1927, pp. 58–59 and 84, reproduced plate XIXa;

Art Institute Zanesville, Ohio, Catalogue, Zanesville 1940, cat. no. 8 (under ‘Recent additions to the permanent collection’);

Art Institute Zanesville, Ohio, Catalogue, Zanesville 1942, pp. 8–10, cat. no. 5.

William Eden was the younger son of Sir Robert Eden, 3rd Bt (d. 1755), and Mary Davison. He received a degree in law from the University of Oxford in 1763, and is here depicted wearing the gown of a gentleman-commoner, providing a date for the portrait (Kettle was working in Oxford from 1762–64).

Eden spent the rest of his life in politics. He was recognised as an authority on commerce and economy; an advocate for the improvement of prisoners’ treatment; and an able diplomat, not only as part of a conciliation commission sent to America during the War of Independence, but also as an ambassador to several European countries over a number of years. Eden also served as a member of the Irish Privy Council, as MP for Heytesbury, and latterly as joint Postmaster General in his friend William Pitt the Younger’s government. Upon their discovery in 1806, the Auckland Islands to the south of New Zealand were named after him.

Sir Thomas Lawrence also painted Eden’s likeness, in 1792, for his alma mater, Christ Church, Oxford (inv. no. LP 213).¹

¹ https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/william-eden-17441814-baron-auckland-228988