Robert, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire (1760-1816), his right hand resting on letters addressed to Lord Hobart

Details

HENRY BONE, R.A. (BRITISH, 1755-1834)
Robert, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire (1760-1816), his right hand resting on letters addressed to Lord Hobart
signed 'HBone.' (lower left) and signed, dated and fully inscribed on the counter-enamel 'Lord Hobart. Painted by Henry Bone Sep.r 1800 Enamel Painter to H. R. H. the Prince of Wales, after John Hoppner RA Portrait Painter to H. R. H. the Prince of Wales.'
enamel on copper
rectangular, 5 5/8 x 4½ in. (142 x 116 mm.), gilt-wood and plaster frame with foliate corners, the inside of the wood frame with trade card 'Mr Bone Hanover Street. [.....] Square'

Provenance

Sarah, Countess of Ripon and by direct descent to
Bertie Gordon (in 1867).
Katherine Gordon, widow of the latter.
Bertie Gordon's nephew, Arthur Gordon of Ellon Castle (in 1901).

Literature

R. Walker, 'Henry Bone's Pencil Drawings [...]', The Walpole Society, LXI, 1999, p. 316.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The sitter entered the Army in 1776 and served in the American war. He was lord-lieutenant of Ireland in 1784 and was elected M. P. for Portarlington and for Armagh in the Irish Parliament and for Bramber and Lincoln in the English Parliament. In 1793, Hobart resigned his secretaryship and was made an English privy councillor and in October was appointed governor of the Presidency of Madras in 1794. In 1798, he was called to the House of Lords as Baron Hobart of Blicking and in 1801 was made Secretary of State for War and the Colonies 1801-1804. Hobart, the capital of Tasmania is named after him. In 1804, he succeeded his father in the peerage and joined Pitt's administration as chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and was joint Post Master General from 1806-1807. He married Margaretta, widow of Thomas Adderley of Innishannon and had a daughter, Sarah Albinia (d. 1867) who married 1st Earl of Ripon. He married secondly, Eleanor Agnes, daughter of 1st Baron Auckland.
The portrait by John Hoppner after which this enamel is painted is on loan to the National Gallery, no. 3892.

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