.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The sitter was the second son of John Rawdon, 1st Earl of Moira (1720-1793), of Rawdon Hall, Yorkshire, and Moira House, Co. Down, Ireland and the brother of the prominent military commander and politician Francis Rawdon Hastings, 2nd Earl of Moira (1754-1826). He is recorded as having visited his uncle the 10th Earl of Huntingdon in Italy in 1773, together with his elder brother. He went on to join the army in which and was commissioned an Ensign in 1773, Lieutenant in 1775, and transferred to the 4th Foot in 1777 and since the 4th Foot had blue facings on the lapels this portrait must date from before his transfer in 1777. Rawdon-Hastings served in North America in the American War of Independence (1775-83) alongside his elder brother, where he lost a leg at the Battle of Brandywine (11 Sept. 1777), a significant British victory against the revolutionary army in the Philadephia campaign launched by General Sir William Howe that year which enabled the capture of Philadelphia. He married Fanny, daughter of Joseph Hall Stevenson of Skelton Castle.
John Trotter studied at the Dublin Society Schools in 1755 where he won three gold premiums and where, according to the Hibernian Journal in 1800, 'his Genius was in admiration, and he made drawings unrivalled probably by any master before or since'. Like many artists of his generation he was drawn to Rome where he travelled in 1759 and remained for sixteen years. In Rome he is recorded as living in the same house as his compatriot the landscape painter Solomon Delane in the Strada Felice in 1764. On his return from Italy he set up as a portrait painter in Dublin, where he is recorded as living in Strafford Street, and later Jervis Street. He showed his work at the Society of Artists and various exhibitions in Dublin, and continued to practice until his death. He was married twice, firstly to Marianne, the daughter of Robert Hunter, the leading portrait painter of his time in Ireland, by whom he had two daughters, who were both artists.
John Trotter studied at the Dublin Society Schools in 1755 where he won three gold premiums and where, according to the Hibernian Journal in 1800, 'his Genius was in admiration, and he made drawings unrivalled probably by any master before or since'. Like many artists of his generation he was drawn to Rome where he travelled in 1759 and remained for sixteen years. In Rome he is recorded as living in the same house as his compatriot the landscape painter Solomon Delane in the Strada Felice in 1764. On his return from Italy he set up as a portrait painter in Dublin, where he is recorded as living in Strafford Street, and later Jervis Street. He showed his work at the Society of Artists and various exhibitions in Dublin, and continued to practice until his death. He was married twice, firstly to Marianne, the daughter of Robert Hunter, the leading portrait painter of his time in Ireland, by whom he had two daughters, who were both artists.