Portrait of the James FitzGerald (1722-1773), 20th Earl of Kildare, later 1st Duke of Leinster, three-quarter-length, in a blue coat with gold trim and brown waistcoat, holding a tricorn hat in his left hand, a landscape beyond

James, 20th Earl of Kildare, later 1st Duke of Leinster, was the eldest son of the eminent statesman Robert Boyle, 19th Earl of Kildare, and his wife Mary, eldest daughter of William, 3rd Earl of Inchiquin. He succeeded his father on the latter's death in 1744 and was made a member of the Irish Privy Council in 1746. In 1747, on the occassion of his marriage to Lady Emily Lennox, second daughter of Charles, 2nd Duke of Richmond, and sister of Lady Holland, Lady Louisa Conolly of Castletown, and Lady Sarah Napier, he was created Viscount Leinster in the English Peerage. After his marriage he played an active part in Irish politics and with his enormous wealth and influential family connections soon formed a powerful party becoming one of the most popular noblemen in Ireland. He accepted a post in the Government as Lord Deputy in 1756, and that of Master General of the Ordnance in 1758, and in 1761 was created Marquis of Offaly in the peerage of Ireland. Five years later he sealed his precedence over all Irish noblemen when he was created Duke of Leinster in the peerage of Ireland at a time when there were no other Irish Dukes. The sitter's principal seat was at Carton, where together with his wife, he was responsible for creating one of the most idyllic landscape gardens in Ireland as a setting for the large Palladian house which his father had built (for a view of the park at Carton see the following lot).

Robert Hunter was for thirty years the most important painter of the Irish establishment, continuing in the tradition of portraiture established in Dublin by Latham and Hussey. During a lengthy career Hunter frequently borrowed compositional ideas from other artists and this portrait relates closely to Sir Joshua Reynolds' three-quarter-length portrait of the Duke of 1753, which originally hung at Carton where Hunter may well have seen it. Reynolds' portrait was engraved, with some alterations, by McArdell in 1754. The composition of this portrait is essentially identical to Reynolds' portrait with the difference that the sitter is shown with his right hand tucked in his waistcoat rather than outstretched pointing into the distance.