Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723)

Portrait of Sir John Rushout, 4th Bt. (1684-1775), three-quarter-length, in a red coat and brown wrap, in a wooded landscape

Details

Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723)
Portrait of Sir John Rushout, 4th Bt. (1684-1775), three-quarter-length, in a red coat and brown wrap, in a wooded landscape
signed and dated 'GK[in a monogram]neller. f/1716' (lower right)
oil on canvas
50 x 40 in. (127 x 101.6 cm.)
in a contemporary carved and gilded frame

Provenance

By descent to Captain E.G. Spencer-Churchill; Northwick Park, Gloucestershire, Christie's, 25 June 1965, lot 56 (140 gns.).

Literature

A Catalogue of Pictures, Works of Art, etc., at Northwick Park, 1864, No. 287.
T. Borenius, A Catalogue of Pictures at Northwick Park, 1921, No.335.
J. Douglas Stewart, Sir Godfrey Kneller, Oxford, 1983, p.127, no. 628

Lot Essay

The sitter was the son of Sir James Rushout, 1st Bt., of Milnst-Maylards, Essex, and succeeded his nephew Sir James Rushout, in 1711. He was Member of Parliament for Malmesbury (elected 1713 and again in 1715), then for Malmesbury and Evesham (elected in 1722), and continued to represent Evesham, having been unseated in Malmesbury, until he retired from parliament in 1768. In the House of Commons he spoke freqeuntly against the measures of Sir Robert Walpole and was one of the committee put together to investigate Walpole's conduct in 1742. He held the lucrative office of Treasurer to the Navy in 1743 and was appointed a member of the Privy Council in the following year. He married Lady Anne, Daughter of George Compton, 4th Earl of Northampton, and was succeeded by his only son John, of Northwick Park, Worcestershire, who was created 1st Baron Northwick.

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