Lot 581
Sold Without Reserve
Sir Joshua Reynolds P.R.A.
Plympton, Devon 1723-1792 London
Portrait of Edward Seymour (1717-1792), 9th Duke of Somerset, in peer's robes, holding a coronet
signed lower right: J. Reynolds
oil on canvas, mounted on aluminum panel
panel: 50 by 39⅞in.; 127 by 101.3 cm.
framed: 53⅞by 40⅞in.; 136.8 by 103.8 cm.
Condition Report
Provenance
Possibly Sir Joshua Reynolds, his sale, London, Greenwood's, 14 April, 1796, lot 22 ("the Duke of Somerset, Three-Quarters" for £‎1 13s to Clarke);
Edward Adolphus Seymour, 12th Duke of Somerset (1804-1885), Stover;
Thence by descent to his grandson, Colonel R. Harold St. Maur (1869-1927), Horton, Chipping Sodbury;
His sale, London, Christie's, 10 July 1925, lot 41 (£483 to Leggatt);
With Leggatt Bros., London;
Lillian S. Whitmarsh, New York;
By whose executors sold, New York, Parke-Bernet, 8 April 1961, lot 300.
Literature
A. Graves and W. Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, PRA., London 1889, vol. II/III, p. 1414 & 911;
D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds: A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings, New Haven 2000, p. 410, cat. no. 1604, reproduced vol. II fig. 363.
Catalogue note
The sitter in this portrait is Edward Seymour (1717-1792), who became the 9th Duke of Somerset on December 12, 1757. Reynolds’ appointment books record several sittings for this portrait in 1758: February 21, 26, and 28, and March 4 and 12. The young nobleman, posed at a slight angle, is pictured at three-quarter length beside a column. He is dressed in the red and ermine-trimmed robes of his rank and holds a gold coronet. Notably, Seymour was bestowed the honor of carrying the orb at the coronation of George III on September 22, 1761.