Portrait of Robert Fullerton, Governor of Penang and first Governor of the Straits Settlements, half length in a brown coat with white stock

Details

George Chinnery (1774-1852)
Portrait of Robert Fullerton, Governor of Penang and first Governor of the Straits Settlements, half length in a brown coat with white stock
with later inscription 'ROBT FULLERTON, GOVR of / PENANG, H.E.I.C.S. son of / WILLIAM FULLERTON of CARSTAIRS / BORN 1773. DIED 1829 [sic].' (lower right)
oil on canvas
in a painted oval
30 ¼ x 25 ¼in. (77 x 64cm.)

Provenance

Robert Fullerton, and thence by descent.
Private collection, Tasmania; sale, Gowans Auctions, Hobart, 27 June 2009, where purchased by the present owner.

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Lot Essay

The attribution to Chinnery was confirmed by Patrick Conner in 2010. The portrait of Robert Fullerton (1773-1831), the sitter identified by the inscription in gold paint which is a feature of the Fullerton family portraits (see for example the inscription on Seton's portrait of Robert's father William Fullerton (1720-1806) in the National Gallery of Scotland, and on the portrait of Robert sold in these Rooms, 30 Oct. 1964, lot 158). The portrait was probably painted during Chinnery's residence in Madras between 1802 and 1807, when the sitter was in his thirties and a Civil Servant and Writer to the Honourable East India Company in the Presidency of Madras. Fullerton would become Governor of Penang between 1826 and 1830, and first Governor of the Straits Settlements from 1826-1830. He is commemorated in Singapore by the naming of the Fullerton Hotel, built on the site of Fort Fullerton, a peninsula commanding strategic views of the Singapore harbour and river, and by Fullerton Road, an important thoroughfare in central Singapore.

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