William Grimaldi (British, 1751-1830)

Williamson (supra) describes the present work as ‘the finest portrait of his [Grimaldi]…… is a striking likeness, full of force and vivacity’. Grimaldi has used Reynolds’s self-portrait of circa 1788 as his model. This self-portrait was given to George IV by Reynolds’s heir and niece, Mary Palmer, Marchioness of Thomond and is still in the Royal Collection (RCIN 400699). Grimaldi 1873 records two watercolour miniatures of Reynolds painted in 1792, no. 51 ‘one of his earliest and best miniatures’ and no. 426 ‘duplicate of no. 51, probably of the same date’. One of these watercolours is now in the Royal Collection (RCIN 420828) having been acquired by the Prince of Wales and is listed in the Grimaldi Accounts for 21 May 1792: ‘To a Miniature of Sir Josha Reynolds with Seting [sic] & As Bill delivered £67. 3. 6’. Grimaldi 1873 (supra) also records five enamel portraits of Reynolds: nos. 9, 13, 15, 18 (offered for sale Christie’s, London, 9 November 1994, lot 28) and 20 (sold Sotheby’s, London, 14 July 2010, lot 31) and four pencil drawings (nos. 38, 39, 118 and 141).