Portrait of the Duke of Portland | |
---|---|
Artist | Thomas Lawrence |
Year | 1792 |
Type | Oil on canvas, portrait |
Dimensions | 238.8 cm× 139.8 cm(94.0 in× 55.0 in) |
Location | Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol |
Portrait of the Duke of Portland is a 1792 portrait painting by the English artist Thomas Lawrence of the British politician William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Titular head of the Fox-North Coalition for eight months from April to December 1783. [1] The leader of the Portland Whigs he crossed to join the government of William Pitt the Younger (who had succeeded him as Prime Minister) in the wake of the French Revolution. In 1807 he returned to the premiership and held the position to 1809, shortly before his death. [2]
The Bristol-born Lawrence had lived and worked in nearby Bath before moving to London where he rapidly established himself as a rising portraitist of high society. He was around twenty three years old when he depicted Portland in this full-length portrait wearing the robes of a peer of the realm. [3] The painting was commissioned by the City of Bristol for a hundred guineas. Portland had served as High steward of the city and the work was displayed in the Mansion House in Queen Square to celebrate this connection. [4]
The painting was narrowly saved from destruction during the 1831 Bristol riots, following the defeat of the second Reform Bill. The Mansion House was attacked by a mob and burned down although some of the contents were rescued in time. Today it is on display in the Bristol Museum in Clifton. [5]
Sir Thomas Lawrence was an English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. A child prodigy, he was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper at the Bear Hotel in the Market Square. At age ten, having moved to Bath, he was supporting his family with his pastel portraits. At 18, he went to London and soon established his reputation as a portrait painter in oils, receiving his first royal commission, a portrait of Queen Charlotte, in 1789. He stayed at the top of his profession until his death, aged 60, in 1830.
William Henry Cavendish Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, was a British Whig and then a Tory politician during the late Georgian era. He served as chancellor of the University of Oxford (1792–1809) and as Prime Minister of Great Britain (1783) and then of the United Kingdom (1807–1809). The gap of 26 years between his two terms as prime minister is the longest of any British prime minister. He was also an ancestor of King Charles III through his great-granddaughter Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne.
Earl of Portland is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of England, firstly in 1633 and secondly in 1689. What proved to be a long co-held title, Duke of Portland, was created in 1716 and became extinct in 1990 upon the death of the ninth Duke, at which point the earldom passed to the most senior agnatic cousin, namely one of the 6th degree.
William Henry Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland,, styled Marquess of Titchfield until 1809, was a British politician who served in various positions in the governments of George Canning and Lord Goderich.
William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck may refer to:
William Bentinck, 2nd Duke of Portland, styled Viscount Woodstock from 1709 to 1716 and Marquess of Titchfield from 1716 to 1726, was a British peer and politician.
The Bentinck family is a prominent family belonging to Dutch, German and British nobility. Its members have served in the armed forces and as ambassadors and politicians, including as Governor General of India and as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The family is related to the British royal family through the maternal Cavendish-Bentinck line of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.
William Cavendish may refer to:
Welbeck Abbey is an English mansion situated in the village of Welbeck, which is within the civil parish of Norton, Cuckney, Holbeck and Welbeck, in the Bassetlaw District of Nottinghamshire. It was the site of a monastery belonging to the Premonstratensian order in England and after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, a country house residence of the Dukes of Portland. It is part of the Dukeries, four contiguous ducal estates in North Nottinghamshire. The house is a Grade I listed building.
Charles William Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck was a priest of the Church of England who held livings in Bedfordshire. He was also the maternal grandfather of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, great-grandfather of Elizabeth II, and a great-great-grandfather of King Charles III.
Lord William Charles Augustus Cavendish-Bentinck, known as Lord Charles Bentinck, was a British soldier and politician and a great-great-grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II.
Events from the year 1738 in Great Britain.
Events from the year 1783 in Great Britain. This year is notable for the conclusion of the American Revolution.
Lady Charles Cavendish-Bentinck, known between 1806 and 1816 as Lady Abdy, was a British aristocrat and a great-great-grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II.
Cavendish-Bentinck is a surname associated with the Dukes of Portland and their descendants. Bentinck is a Dutch surname brought to England by William Bentinck, an advisor to William III of England. Cavendish was added to the family name by Bentinck's great-grandson the 3rd Duke of Portland, who married in 1766 Lady Dorothy Cavendish, daughter of the 4th Duke of Devonshire. By a family arrangement, she was the heiress to estates which had previously belonged to the defunct Newcastle branch of the Cavendish family, including Welbeck Abbey, which became the principal seat of the Dukes of Portland. Following the death of the 9th Duke in 1990, the family name became extinct.
William Henry Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, Marquess of Titchfield —styled Viscount Woodstock until 1809—was a British Member of Parliament (MP) and son of a duke. Born into the noble Bentinck family, his grandfather William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, served as both Prime Minister of Great Britain and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Expected to succeed his father as the fifth Duke of Portland, Titchfield died at only 27 years old.
The Cavendishfamily is a British noble family, of Anglo-Norman origins. They rose to their highest prominence as Duke of Devonshire and Duke of Newcastle.
Lord Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, known as Henry Cavendish-Bentinck until 1880, was a British Conservative politician.
Lord Edward Charles Cavendish-Bentinck, known as Lord Edward Bentinck, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1766 to 1802.
Dorothy Bentinck, Duchess of Portland was Duchess of Portland and the wife of William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, the Prime Minister of Great Britain.