Joseph Wright of Derby’s Portrait of Francis Burdett is one of six exceptional works by the artist collectively known as The Markeaton Hunt Portraits. They were commissioned by the twenty-three year old Francis Mundy, c. 1762-63, and show close friends of his from Derbyshire (Burdett and Mundy were both brothers-in-law and cousins), in the distinctive blue velvet coat, red waistcoat and yellow breeches of the Markeaton Hunt. They mark a high-point in Wright’s early maturity, and hold their place in the pantheon of celebrated series of ‘non-family’ portraits painted in Britain, from Lely’s Flag Captains and Beauties, through Kneller’s Kit-cat Club and Knapton’s Dilettante Society, and arguably culminating in Lawrence’s portraits of allied leaders in the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle.

MORE >

< BACK NEXT >

John Stainton
Director, British Pictures JStainton@christies.com
020 7389 2945