Early Georgian Portraits Catalogue: Wade

George Wade (1673-1748)

Field-marshal; an Irishman; ensign, 1690; served in Flanders, 1692 and 1702-03, in Spain, 1704-10; distinguished himself in the battles of Almanza, 1707, and Saragossa, 1710, and at the taking of Minorca, 1708; major-general, 1714; MP, Hindon, 1715; stationed at Bath to overawe the western Jacobites, 1715; served in the Vigo expedition, 1719; MP, Bath, 1722-48; sent to the highlands, 1724, where he made military roads, 1726-33; lieutenant-general, 1727; field-marshal, 1743; commanded in Flanders, 1744-45; commander-in-chief in England, 1745; sent against Prince Charles Edward; superseded for failing to stop his march.

1594 Attributed to Johann van Diest, c.1731 (?)
Oil on canvas, 29 ¾ x 24 5/8 in. (756 x 626 mm), oval; very dark blue-grey eyes, light brown eyebrows, grey wig, fresh complexion; red coat with gold buttons and button-holes over gold ornamented steel cuirass; [1] dark blackish-brown background.

The attribution to Van Diest is based on comparison with a similar portrait at Bath commissioned by the City and hung in the Guildhall in 1731. [2] NPG 1594, formerly a three-quarter length in very bad condition, was reduced to the present oval at or before the time of acquisition. A three-quarter length at Christie's (anonymous property), 24 March 1937, lot 115, and subsequently with D. Minlore, recording the type before reduction, shows horsemen in the background to the left of the figure. A slightly different oval was formerly (1932) in the possession of Major Duncan Warrand. [3] The Bath portrait is a hybrid: the head is the same as in NPG 1594 but the body is turned towards the right as in the other Van Diest type discussed below.

Condition:badly rubbed; considerable retouching, especially to right side of face, wig and body.

Collections:bought 1911 from E.H. Barker of Redcliffe Square, SW10.

Literature:G.C. Williamson, Catalogue of the Collection of Miniatures the Property of J.Pierpont Morgan,1906-08; (Sir) J.G. Mann, 'Sir John Smythe's Armour in Portraiture', Connoisseur, XC, 1932; B. Boyce, The Benevolent Man: A Life of Ralph Allen of Bath,1967.

Iconography

Van Diest's habit of variety—he does not seem to have adopted the practice of painting straight repetitions common in the fashionable studios [4] — makes it unwise to classify too closely his portraits of Wade, but it seems that another type, and perhaps sitting, is argued by his oils of Wade with the head and body turned towards the right. A three-quarter length belongs to M.C. Allen Esq, no doubt by descent from the sitter's protégé Ralph Allen: in this Wade's right hand rests on a cannon-mouth; another was with Stoner and Evans of King Street, St James in 1929. A whole length version is in the Scottish NPG (L28). A quarter length version belonged in 1859 to John Webster of Edgehill House, near Aberdeen. All depict the Smythe suit of armour common also to the group to which NPG 1594 belongs. It is most accurately shown in Mr Allen's picture. Near the Allen group is the portrait engraved and published in 1736 by Faber after Van Diest of Wade as 'Commander in Chief North Britain', showing simplified armour and a bridge in the right background in allusion to the construction of the military roads in the Highlands. The date of publication of the engraving and the payment for the Bath portrait, 1731, are the only dates known in connection with Van Diest's portraits of the sitter.

Somewhat similar to the Allen type is a mezzotint by A. Van Haecken after Vanderbank; Van Haecken's drawing for this is in the Scottish NPG (353). An unattributed half length, belonging to Wade's descendant, the Rev. John Mason of Aldenham, was exhibited at the ‘NPE' 1867 (300); it is dated 1740 at the back. An attractive portrait by J.B. Vanloo, datable to his English sojourn, 1737-42, was given by John Wade to the United Service Club. A miniature of Wade by Benjamin Arlaud, signed and dated 1731, was in the collection of J. Pierpont Morgan. [5] A medallion portrait by Roubiliac (1746) is on Wade's monument in Westminster Abbey.

The so-called portrait of Wade by Hogarth in the National Gallery of Ireland appears to represent a different sitter.

Notes

1. For the armour, see Mann pp.88-97, reproduced p.200.
2. A resolution was passed on 10 May 1731 to 'pay Mr. Van Diest for the picture of the Right Honourable Lieutenant-General Wade by him lately got up in this Townhall'. Cited Farwell, p.29. See also Boyce, pp.37-38, and above, Ralph Allen.
3. Reproduced Mann, p.97.
4. Contrast, for example, Hoare's portraits of Chatham (q.v.).
5. Christie's, 26 June 1935, lot 457; subsequently the property of Colonel Stephenson Clarke; reproduced Williamson, II, pl. lxvii (3), who states that the frame, engraved with the sitter's identity, is original.