Live Auction 2818Old Master Paintings Part II
George Romney (Lancs 1734-1802 Cumbria)
Lot 282 PROPERTY OF THE TOLEDO MUSEUM OF ART, SOLD TO BENEFIT THE ACQUISITIONS FUND

George Romney (Lancs 1734-1802 Cumbria)

A Portrait of John Mackenzie, Lord Macleod, half-length

Closed30 January 2014

Price Realised

USD 37,500

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George Romney (Lancs 1734-1802 Cumbria)
A Portrait of John Mackenzie, Lord Macleod, half-length
oil on canvas
50 1/8 x 40¼ in. (127.2 x 101.8 cm.)

Painted for the sitter, and by descent.
Sir Hugh Lane, Dublin, from whom purchased in 1913 by the following
with Agnew's, London, from whom purchased in 1919 by
Marquise de Ganay; Paris, Georges Petit, 8-10 May 1922, lot 66, to the following.
with Agnew's, London, from whom purchased in 1924 by
John Levy, New York.
with Howard Young Galleries, New York, from whom purchased in 1925 by Arthur J. Secor, by whom gifted in 1928 to the Toledo Museum of Art.

Specialist note

John Mackenzie, Lord Macleod (1727-1789) of Scotland was the eldest child of George Mackenzie, third earl of Cromarty, and Isabella Gordon. During the Jacobite rising of 1745, the family supported Charles Edward Stuart, assembling their clansmen in a regiment to fight on his behalf. Only nineteen, Lord McLeod was captured by loyalist forces and found guilty of treason, but pardoned in 1748 after relinquishing the estates of the earldom of Cromarty. He later joined the Swedish army, and in 1762 he was made a Knight of the Order of the North Star. In 1777, Lord Macleod joined the British army and two years later accompanied a battalion to India.

Romney painted this portrait along with a pendant of Lady Margery Macleod (location unknown) in 1788. Lord Macleod is most likely depicted in the uniform of the 71st Regiment, while the sword and star probably allude to his Swedish rank as a knight of the Order of the Sword and the North Star. This portrait will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist by Alex Kidson, to whom we are grateful for assistance in the cataloging of this picture.