Lot 2185
SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE, PRA (1769-1830)
PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN, BELIEVED TO BE PHILIP JOHN MILES, MP (1773-1845)
Bust length, wearing a dark coat, white neckcloth and winged stock, oil on canvas
74.5 x 62cm.
* Miles was a notable Bristol figure, a very wealthy businessman and parliamentarian who was apparently Bristol's first recorded millionaire and a partner in the Miles Bank (that later merged with Nat West). Miles owned Leigh Court and Kings Weston estates on both banks of the River Avon in Bristol and also the Manor or Walton in Gordano, Clevedon as well as many more lands in the Bristol area. Lawrence himself was born in Bristol in 1769: the family lived in Redcross Street until Thomas Lawrence Senior took over the running of a coffee house and inn on Broad Street.
This portrait may be dated to c.1815-1820. The sitter would appear perhaps to be in his forties. The only other known image of Miles is believed to be a small unascribed mezzotint portrait, published in 1822.
Miles was a great friend of Richard Hart Davis (1766-1842), another Bristol born merchant and banker, who was also painted by Lawrence in 1815. Philip John Miles was also a friend of Richard Hart Davis and in 1813 he purchased his famous Old Masters art collection which became the nucleus of the celebrated Leigh Court Collection, dispersed in 1899.
Provenance: By descent in the family of the sitter until sold with other family portraits at auction in 2014, where purchased by the present owner.
