Live Auction 21459Old Master and British Drawings and Watercolours
DANIEL GARDNER, A.R.A. (KENDAL 1750-1805 LONDON)
Lot 120

DANIEL GARDNER, A.R.A. (KENDAL 1750-1805 LONDON)

Portrait of Sir John Wrottesley Bt. (1744-1787), full-length in a red coat, leaning on a wall

Closed4 July 2023

Price Realised

GBP 6,300

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DANIEL GARDNER, A.R.A. (KENDAL 1750-1805 LONDON)
Portrait of Sir John Wrottesley Bt. (1744-1787), full-length in a red coat, leaning on a wall
pencil, pastel and bodycolour
22 3/4 x 19 3/4 in. (57.8 x 50.2 cm.)

The sitter, and by descent to his sister,
Elizabeth Wrottesley and by descent to
Richard John Wrottesley, 5th Baron Wrottesley, and by descent to
Lady Mary Wrottesley, South Africa.

Specialist note

The present drawing has long held an identification as Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton (1735-1811), due to its descent in the Wrottesley family, via his second wife, Elizabeth. However, the sitter is wearing the undress uniform of a Foot Guard, and Fitzroy did not have a military career. It is more likely that the sitter is Elizabeth's brother, Sir John Wrottesley Bt., who served in the 1st Foot Guards in the 1770’s and 1780’s. A reference to a portrait of Sir John at Wrottesley in the uniform of the Foot Guards in G. Wrottesley, History of the family of Wrottesley, 1903, p. 361, is probably this picture.

We are grateful to Neil Jeffares and Christopher Bryant for their help in preparing this catalogue entry.