Lot 2107
SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE, PRA (1769-1830) AND STUDIO
PORTRAIT OF FREDERICK HOWARD, 5TH EARL OF CARLISLE, KG, KT, PC (1748-1825)
Quarter length, wearing Garter robes, oil on canvas, period gilt frame
74.5 x 62cm.
* Frederick was the 10th and youngest child of the 4th Earl of Carlisle (1693-1758). Three older half brothers had all died relatively young and so he succeeded to the Earldom aged just ten. He sat to Sir Joshua Reynolds at least four times, most notably for two portraits in 1763 and 1769 (see images of engravings of these portraits).
After studying at Eton and Cambridge, the Earl was invested as a Knight, Order of the Thistle in 1767 and held subsequently a number of distinguished offices, including Treasurer of the Household (1777-1779), Commissioner in negotiations with America (1778), First Lord of Trade (1779-1780), Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1780-1782), Lord Steward of the Household ((1782-1783) and Lord Privy Seal (1783). He was Lord Lieutenant of the East Riding of Yorkshire (1799-1807) and died at Castle Howard (where he is buried) in 1825.
He married Lady Margaret Caroline Leveson-Gower (1753-1824), daughter of the 1st Marquess of Stafford, on March 22nd 1770. The marriage bore ten children, including George (1773-1848) who succeeded his father to the title.
Kenneth Garlick's thorough catalogue of Lawrence's portraits does not make any reference to the 5th Earl ever sitting for a portrait to Lawrence. An almost identical portrait, evidently for the same commission and also ascribed to Lawrence and Studio, was sold at Sothebys on March 14th 1990 (lot 70).
This portrait was painted no earlier than June 1793 (when the Earl resigned from the Order of the Thistle upon his investiture as a Knight, Order of the Garter). The Earl does not appear to be any older than forty five years of age and so Lawrence was only 24-25 years old at that time. Already a new Royal Academician, appointed at the earliest permitted age of 25, Lawrence was sufficiently well established by the mid-1790's to apportion even noble and aristocratic commissions such as this to his studio for assistance. It is possible that the studio collaborated with autograph versions produced for other family members.
Lawrence's portrait of the 5th Earl's brother in law, Lord George Granville Leveson-Gower (Garlick 487), c.1796, is a very similar composition, albeit less flamboyantly resolved.
