Portrait of Cropley Ashley-Cooper (1768-1851), 6th Earl of Shaftesbury, half-length

Details

SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE, P.R.A. (BRISTOL 1769-1830 LONDON)
Portrait of Cropley Ashley-Cooper (1768-1851), 6th Earl of Shaftesbury, half-length
oil on canvas
50 x 40 in. (127 x 101.6 cm.)

Provenance

By descent from the sitter to,
Anthony Ashley-Cooper (1938-2004), 10th Earl of Shaftesbury, St. Giles House, Dorset; and by whom sold, [The Property of the Earl of Shaftesbury, Removed from St. Gile's House, Dorset], Christie’s, London, 27 June 1980, lot 162.
with Spink & Son Ltd., London, by November 1980.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, London, 9 April 1997, lot 44, where acquired by the present owner.

Literature

Lord R. Sutherland Gower, Sir Thomas Lawrence, London, 1900, p. 158.
A. Graves, The Royal Academy of Arts, A Complete Dictionary of Contributors of their work from its foundation in 1769 to 1904, V, London, 1906, p. 4, no. 13; 1972, p. 4, no. 13.
W. Armstrong, Lawrence, New York, 1913, pp. 123 and 162.
K.J. Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence, London, 1954, pp. 33 and 57.
K.J. Garlick, ‘A Catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings and Pastels of Sir Thomas Lawrence,' Walpole Society, XXXIX, 1964, pp. 59 and 174.
Advertisement, The Burlington Magazine, November 1980, p. xxi, illustrated.
K.J. Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Oxford, 1989, p. 263, no. 710, illustrated.
M. Levey, Sir Thomas Lawrence, New Haven and London, 2005, p. 168.
J. Lant, A Connoisseur's Journey: Being the artful memoirs of a man of wit, discernment, pluck, and joy, Cambridge, 2015, pp. cccxlix.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, 1811, no. 13.
London, Spink & Son Ltd., English Oil Paintings, 11-28 November 1980, unnumbered.
London, Spink & Son Ltd., English Portraits: oil paintings and drawings, 27 October -16 November 1981, unnumbered.

Engraved

C. Turner, 1812.

Sale room notice

Please note the additional literature for this lot:
M. Levey, Sir Thomas Lawrence, New Haven and London, 2005, p. 168.
J. Lant, A Connoisseur's Journey: Being the artful memoirs of a man of wit, discernment, pluck, and joy, Cambridge, 2015, pp. cccxlix.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

Cropley Ashley-Cooper and Sir Thomas Lawrence both attended The Fort school in Bristol together as boys in the 1770s. Ashley-Cooper, the son of one of the founding members of the Georgia colony, continued his education at Winchester School and, later at Christ Church, Oxford. Lawrence, however, left school after just two years and began supporting his family, when he was just ten years old, with his portrait work upon their move to Bath in 1779. The present painting is the only portrait of the artist's boyhood friend. It is recorded in a mezzotint published by Charles Turner, likely created at the time of the painting's exhibition at the Royal Academy.

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