Portrait of William Burton Conyngham (1733-1796), half-length, his head turned to the right, wearing a red mantle

This pastel portrait appears to be a contemporary copy after the work by Anton Raphael Mengs, which was executed when he was in Rome about 1754-1758 and in the collection of the Getty Museum, California. The work was probably commissioned as a souvenir of Conyngham's Grand Tour.

William Burton as born in Co. Clare, he inherited Slane Castle Co. Meath and took on the family name of Conyngham. He was a key figure in the Hibernian Antiquarian Society and a patron of Gabriel Beranger (1729-1817), who he employed to prepare a volume of engravings of Ireland's ancient monuments to compete with the ones of England and Wales. Due to internal wranglings the Society folded after only four years, however the portfolio of drawings was used for the two volumes of engravings known as Grose's Antiquities. For further information on the sitter see C.F. Trench, The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 1983, vol. 115, pp. 40-61.