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拍品專文
The sitter was the only son of Henry Vernon, of Sudbury, Member of Parliament for Stafford, and his first wife, Anne (d. 1714), only daughter and heiress of Thomas Pigott, of Chetwynd, Salop. Born in circa 1707, he assumed the additional surname and arms of Venables in 1728, upon inheriting the estates of his maternal ancestors, and was elevated to the Peerage, as Lord Vernon, Baron of Kinderton, Chester, in May 1762.
In 1737, the date of this portrait, Vernon was married to Mary, daughter and co-heir of the 6th Lord Howard of Effingham (m. 21 June 1733). On her death in 1740, Vernon married, 22 December 1741, Anne (d. 1742), daughter of Sir Thomas Lee, Bt., of Hartwell, Buckinghamshire. Vernon married thirdly, in April 1744, Martha (d. 1794), daughter of Hon. Simon Harcourt, granddaughter of the Lord Chancellor, Viscount Harcourt, and sister of the 1st Earl of Harcourt. Vernon's second son by his third marriage, Edward, who was Archbishop of York, assumed the surname Harcourt on succeeding to the Harcourt estates.
It is likely that the present portrait descended though Vernon's third marriage, since it was in the collection of Lewis, 1st Viscount Harcourt, of Stanton Harcourt, and Baron Nuneham, of Nuneham-Courtenay, the sitter's great-great-grandson, in the 20th century.
The portrait would originally have hung at Sudbury, one of the country's finest Restoration mansions, designed and built by the sitter's grandfather, George Vernon (b. 1635). It is likely that the portrait would then have hung at either the Harcourt ancestral home of Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, the Medieval core of which was largely demolished and re-built in the 1770s (where Alexander Pope was lodged between 1717 and 1718 in order to finish his translation of the Iliad); or at Nuneham-Courtenay, Oxfordshire, built by Simon, 1st Earl Harcourt in circa 1760 from designs by Stiff Leadbetter.
Gainsborough painted a full-length portrait of the sitter in 1767 (Southampton City Art Gallery).
In 1737, the date of this portrait, Vernon was married to Mary, daughter and co-heir of the 6th Lord Howard of Effingham (m. 21 June 1733). On her death in 1740, Vernon married, 22 December 1741, Anne (d. 1742), daughter of Sir Thomas Lee, Bt., of Hartwell, Buckinghamshire. Vernon married thirdly, in April 1744, Martha (d. 1794), daughter of Hon. Simon Harcourt, granddaughter of the Lord Chancellor, Viscount Harcourt, and sister of the 1st Earl of Harcourt. Vernon's second son by his third marriage, Edward, who was Archbishop of York, assumed the surname Harcourt on succeeding to the Harcourt estates.
It is likely that the present portrait descended though Vernon's third marriage, since it was in the collection of Lewis, 1st Viscount Harcourt, of Stanton Harcourt, and Baron Nuneham, of Nuneham-Courtenay, the sitter's great-great-grandson, in the 20th century.
The portrait would originally have hung at Sudbury, one of the country's finest Restoration mansions, designed and built by the sitter's grandfather, George Vernon (b. 1635). It is likely that the portrait would then have hung at either the Harcourt ancestral home of Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, the Medieval core of which was largely demolished and re-built in the 1770s (where Alexander Pope was lodged between 1717 and 1718 in order to finish his translation of the Iliad); or at Nuneham-Courtenay, Oxfordshire, built by Simon, 1st Earl Harcourt in circa 1760 from designs by Stiff Leadbetter.
Gainsborough painted a full-length portrait of the sitter in 1767 (Southampton City Art Gallery).