THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
Petrus Johannes van Reysschoot
PORTRAIT OF SIR DANVERS OSBORN (1715–1753), GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK
Lot. Vendu
15,000 GBP
(Prix d’adjudication avec commission acheteur)
Details & Cataloguing
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Petrus Johannes van Reysschoot
GHENT 1702 - 1772
PORTRAIT OF SIR DANVERS OSBORN (1715–1753), GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK
inscribed and dated, upper left: Sr. Danvers Osborn Bart. / In 1736, and later inscribed, upper right: PIPER.
oil on canvas
76.2 x 63.6 cm.; 30 x 25 in.
Lire le rapport d'état
Lire le rapport d'état
oil on canvas
76.2 x 63.6 cm.; 30 x 25 in.
Provenance
Commissioned by the sitter and thence by descent to the present owner.
Description
Born at Chicksands Priory in Bedfordshire, the sitter was the son of John Osborn and his wife Sarah Byng, the daughter of George Byng, 1st Viscount Torrington (1663–1733). In 1720 he succeeded his grandfather as 3rd Baronet and in 1740 married Lady Mary Montagu, the daughter of George Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax. His brother-in-law, the 2nd Earl, was one of the leading British statesmen of the Georgian era who, as President of the Board of Trade, became known as the 'father of the Colonies'. In 1743 Lady Mary died giving birth to their second child and the loss of his wife affected Osborn’s mental state for the rest of his life.
In 1745 he saw military action in support of the King at Culloden and subsequently represented Bedfordshire in Parliament between 1747 and 1753. In 1750, with the patronage of his brother-in-law, he travelled to the Americas; first to Nova Scotia, where he worked assiduously to help establish the newly created colony there and was much esteemed by the settlers, before being appointed to the post of Royal Governor of the Province of New York in 1753. In October of that year, however, shortly after assuming office, he committed suicide in the garden of his house in New York, no longer able to bear the loss of his beloved wife. His body was interred at Trinity Church, in Manhattan, before being repatriated to Chicksands in 1754.
A Flemish artist from Ghent, Petrus Johannes van Reysschoot came to England between circa 1736 and 1743, having won a prize at the Paris Academy in 1730. In England he painted history and sporting scenes, which show the influence of both Hayman and Wootton, and had a good portrait practice particularly among Midlands gentry.
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