拍品專文
The sitter was the eldest son of Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (for whom see lot 8), and his wife Margaret, daughter of Charles Cocks, of Worcester, and widow of John Lygon. He matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1737 where he received a degree in law in 1749. By nature reserved, he prefered the literary world to that of politics and was a Fellow of the Royal Society and also of the Society of Antiquities. He nevertheless continued the family tradition in politics. He represented Reigate, Surrey, in the Parliament of 1741-7, and Cambridgeshire in subsequent parliaments until on the death of his father, in 1764, he took his seat in the House of Lords. He was a member of the first Rockingham administration and was offered the Northern Seals at Grafton's resignation in 1766 but declined owing to ill health, which also kept him from playing a more active part in opposition during the Grafton and North administrations. He was Teller of the Exchequer from 1738, Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire from 1757, and High Steward of the University of Cambridgeshire from 1764 until his death at his house in St. James's Square in 1790. In 1740 he married Jemima, daughter of John Campbell, 3rd Earl of Breadalbane. His wife was also heiress of her maternal grandfather, Henry, Duke of Kent, from whom she inherited large estates including Wrest Park, Bedfordshire, as well as the title Marchioness Grey in her own right. They lived at Wrest Park until 1764 when they moved to Wimpole. At Wimpole the 2nd Earl spent much time building up his library, however, his most notable achievement there was the extension of the park to the north of the house between 1767 and 1772 under the direction of 'Capability' Brown, who also built the Gothic Tower which Sanderson Miller had originally designed for the 1st Earl as early as 1750.
On his death, without male issue, his title devolved upon his nephew Philip Yorke, eldest son of his brother Charles.
Ths sitter's family were important patrons of Allan Ramsay. His father, the 1st Earl, had sat for the now famous full-length portrait, soon after the artist's return from Italy in 1738 (see A. Smart, op.cit., p. 60, pl. 48), a commission which played a crucial role in establishing Ramsay's reputation. The sitter is recorded as having visited Ramsay's studio in Covent Garden together with Thomas Birch on 26 January 1741. This is one of two three-quarter-length portraits which the artist executed of the sitter in that year. It evidently hung as a pendant to the artist's three-quarter-length portrait of the sitter's wife, Lady Jemima, Marchioness Grey, which was completed the following year and is now at Wimpole (the National Trust). Both portraits bear inscriptions in the same hand and are identically framed (A.Smart, op.cit., p.67).
On his death, without male issue, his title devolved upon his nephew Philip Yorke, eldest son of his brother Charles.
Ths sitter's family were important patrons of Allan Ramsay. His father, the 1st Earl, had sat for the now famous full-length portrait, soon after the artist's return from Italy in 1738 (see A. Smart, op.cit., p. 60, pl. 48), a commission which played a crucial role in establishing Ramsay's reputation. The sitter is recorded as having visited Ramsay's studio in Covent Garden together with Thomas Birch on 26 January 1741. This is one of two three-quarter-length portraits which the artist executed of the sitter in that year. It evidently hung as a pendant to the artist's three-quarter-length portrait of the sitter's wife, Lady Jemima, Marchioness Grey, which was completed the following year and is now at Wimpole (the National Trust). Both portraits bear inscriptions in the same hand and are identically framed (A.Smart, op.cit., p.67).