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Lot Essay
George Agar-Ellis, 1st Baron Dover, was a politician and patron of the arts. The only son of Henry Welbore Agar-Ellis, second Viscount Clifden, and his wife, Lady Caroline Spencer, eldest daughter of George Spencer, fourth duke of Marlborough, he was educated at Westminster School in 1811 and at Christ Church College, Oxford where he graduated BA in 1816. He entered Parliament in 1818 and was instrumental in the foundation of the National Gallery. In a discussion on the grants for the British Museum, Agar-Ellis appealed to the government to acquire the collection of paintings belonging to the banker John Julius Angerstein so that a National Gallery could be formed. In 1823 the Government adopted his idea and the collection was bought for £60,000. The Angerstein collection included 38 works in total by artists such as Carracci, Claude, Reynolds, Rubens and van Dyck, as well as the famous portrait of Pope Julius II by Raphael, and the Marriage à la Mode series by Hogarth. These pictures were selected chiefly by Sir Thomas Lawrence, and, together with those which had been presented by Sir George Beaumont, formed the nucleus of the National Gallery collection. Agar-Ellis married Lady Georgiana Howard, second daughter of the sixth Earl of Carlisle, George Howard in 1822 and they had four sons and three daughters. He was a generous patron of the arts and formed a valuable collection of British paintings. He served as a Trustee of the British Museum and the National Gallery. Agar-Ellis was created Baron Dover on 20 June 1831 and died at Dover House, Whitehall, on 10 July 1833 aged 37 years. He is buried in the family vault in St Mary's Church, Twickenham.