Portrait of a Gentleman Signed and dated 1791
Oil on canvas | 102.2 x 128.1 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 400560
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The Royal Collection holds an important group of paintings by George Stubbs; all of them were acquired by George IV when Prince of Wales and all of them (with the exception of OM 1115, 400512) were sent in 1822 from Carlton House to the King’s Lodge (later Royal Lodge) in Windsor Great Park, presumably as an appropriate setting for sporting paintings. In 1793 Thomas Allwood presented a bill to the Prince for £110 16s, for ‘Carving & Gilding eight Picture frames of half length size [40 x 50 inches] for sundry Pictures painted by Mr Stubbs’. This is one of thirteen paintings in the collection of these dimensions (40 x 50 inches), all in identical frames and all dated between 1790 and 1793 (OM 1109-12, 1115-8, 1122-6, 400142, 400106, 400995, 400997, 400512, 400560, 400994, 400587, 400510, 400562, 400943, 405001, 400549). It is not possible to say which were the eight mentioned in Allwood’s bill, and how they might have been grouped or paired off; but they all seem to have been conceived loosely as a set. In the 1819 Carlton House inventory the sitter for this portrait was identified as Sir William Medows. Assuming this is true the pose seems to have been copied from an earlier portrait of the same sitter (OM 1113, 400550). Medows appears mounted on a bay charger, riding to the right in the interior of a large riding-school or barn; he wears a grey-green coat and breeches with a black tricorne hat.
Provenance
Presumably painted for George IV; recorded in store at Carlton House in 1816 (no. 418) and 1819 (no 404); taken to the King's Lodge (Royal Lodge) in Windsor Park in 1822; in Cumberland Lodge in 1844
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Creator(s)
Acquirer(s)
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Medium and techniques
Oil on canvas
Measurements
102.2 x 128.1 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
130.1 x 155.9 x 9.7 cm (frame, external)
Category
Object type(s)
Other number(s)
Alternative title(s)
Sir William Meadows (1738-1838), previously identified as
Sir Sidney Meadows (1701-1792)?