Lot 1662
JOSEPH WRIGHT OF DERBY, ARA (1734-1797)
PORTRAIT OF JOHN STAFFORD (d.1779)
Half length, wearing a dark red coat and waistcoat with gold brocade, white neckcloth and a wig, bears inscription verso, oil on canvas
75 x 62cm.
Illustrated: Benedict Nicolson, Joseph Wright of Derby, London and New York, 1968, I, p.220.
* According to the artist's account books, John Stafford sat to Wright in Liverpool in 1769, when Stafford was visiting the city with the important Macclesfield industrialist, Charles Roe. The portrait cost £10.10.
Stafford was a significant civic figure. He was deputy clerk of the manor and forest of Macclesfield on behalf of the Earl of Derby, deputy town clerk of Macclesfield and a prominent lawyer. He married Lucy Tatton, daughter of William Tatton of Withenshawe on November 21st 1734 (see the following lot).
