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Lot Essay
Francis Noel Clarke Mundy commissioned this highly engaging portrait of himself with a hound in a landscape from Wright to hang with five other portraits of his friends and relations at Markeaton Hall in Derbyshire, which he had recently inherited. Both sitter and artist were still in their twenties when this work was executed and the commission proved transformative for the young Wright, who had recently returned to Derby following two separate stints during the 1750s in the London workshop of the leading portraitist of the day, Thomas Hudson, who had taught Joshua Reynolds in the previous decade. The Markeaton Hunt Portraits, as they became known, remained with Mundy's descendants until 1975. For the full details of this significant early commission and the importance of the works within the artist’s wider oeuvre please see the note to the previous lot.
The Mundys, who had been established at Markeaton for over two hundred years, were among the most prominent of Derbyshire families. Born in 1739, Francis was the eldest son of Wrightson Mundy and his wife Anne Burdett. Wrightson Mundy, reputedly a friend of Addison, Steele and Swift, had been High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1737, and MP for Leicestershire between 1747 and 1751. He rebuilt Markeaton Hall in 1755, which remained in the family until the early twentieth century and was sadly demolished in 1964 having fallen into disrepair following World War II.
Francis studied at New College, Oxford from 1757, where he became a friend of Harry Peckham (for whose portrait, which formed part of the wider Markeaton Hunt group, please see the previous lot). Francis developed a love of and affinity for poetry, and gravitated to the Lichfield circle, which included well-known writers, poets and physicians of the day, notably Samuel Johnson, Erasmus Darwin, David Garrick and Anna Seward. With the encouragement of Darwin and Seward, Mundy published his own poems in Lichfield in 1776, first anonymously as Needwood Forest, and later in an enlarged edition in 1808. Francis married Elizabeth Burdett, sister of one of his Markeaton Hunt companions, on 17 June 1770, at All Saints, Mackworth. Two of their sons, Francis and Charles, were portrayed by Wright in a painting exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1782 as Two Young Gentlemen in the Character of Archers.
Wright clearly relished in rendering the details of this composition, notably the sitter’s gloved left hand, riding crop and hound, the texture of whose fur is described through Wright’s signature sgraffito technique, where he used the end of the brush to scratch into the wet paint. Wright’s niece, Hannah, recorded in her memoirs that the Markeaton Hunt series was exhibited in Derby Town Hall before being delivered to Markeaton Hall, where, as Judy Egerton noted: ‘they must have presented visitors with evidence of a new and striking talent in their midst’ (exhibition catalogue, Wright of Derby, Tate Gallery, London; Grand Palais, Paris; and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1990, p. 38).
The Mundys, who had been established at Markeaton for over two hundred years, were among the most prominent of Derbyshire families. Born in 1739, Francis was the eldest son of Wrightson Mundy and his wife Anne Burdett. Wrightson Mundy, reputedly a friend of Addison, Steele and Swift, had been High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1737, and MP for Leicestershire between 1747 and 1751. He rebuilt Markeaton Hall in 1755, which remained in the family until the early twentieth century and was sadly demolished in 1964 having fallen into disrepair following World War II.
Francis studied at New College, Oxford from 1757, where he became a friend of Harry Peckham (for whose portrait, which formed part of the wider Markeaton Hunt group, please see the previous lot). Francis developed a love of and affinity for poetry, and gravitated to the Lichfield circle, which included well-known writers, poets and physicians of the day, notably Samuel Johnson, Erasmus Darwin, David Garrick and Anna Seward. With the encouragement of Darwin and Seward, Mundy published his own poems in Lichfield in 1776, first anonymously as Needwood Forest, and later in an enlarged edition in 1808. Francis married Elizabeth Burdett, sister of one of his Markeaton Hunt companions, on 17 June 1770, at All Saints, Mackworth. Two of their sons, Francis and Charles, were portrayed by Wright in a painting exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1782 as Two Young Gentlemen in the Character of Archers.
Wright clearly relished in rendering the details of this composition, notably the sitter’s gloved left hand, riding crop and hound, the texture of whose fur is described through Wright’s signature sgraffito technique, where he used the end of the brush to scratch into the wet paint. Wright’s niece, Hannah, recorded in her memoirs that the Markeaton Hunt series was exhibited in Derby Town Hall before being delivered to Markeaton Hall, where, as Judy Egerton noted: ‘they must have presented visitors with evidence of a new and striking talent in their midst’ (exhibition catalogue, Wright of Derby, Tate Gallery, London; Grand Palais, Paris; and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1990, p. 38).