Baron John Wainwright
(1657-1741), Baron of the exchequer in IrelandSitter in 1 portrait
by and published by John Brooks, after James Latham
mezzotint, published 12 May 1742
NPG D37970
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Corey Victoria Geske
21 April 2021, 15:25
Wainwright is definitively identified as the gentleman prominently seated to the far left with pen in hand, who commissioned (in the summer of 1728) the group portrait known as the Bermuda Group (Yale University Art Gallery at https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/21 painted ca. 1728, reworked 1739 by John Smibert (1688-1751) as stated in Richard H. Saunders, John Smibert Colonial America’s First Portrait Painter (New Haven and London: Yale University, 1995), p. 84 (Wainwright image, Fig. 82), at https://books.google.com/books?id=Wklq3JItYOgC&pg=PA84&lpg=PA84&dq=John+wainwright,+baron+of+the+exchequer+in+Ireland,+berkeley+group&source=bl&ots=TPdNLpv6Wx&sig=ACfU3U1RpUEuCwWIWzHWF9lMT0_EsanTsQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi2pM7ct4_wAhWyl-AKHbhzAuAQ6AEwA3oECA4QAw#v=onepage&q=John%20wainwright%2C%20baron%20of%20the%20exchequer%20in%20Ireland%2C%20berkeley%20group&f=false
Wainwright did not travel to America in 1728 with the group supporting the idea of Dean George Berkeley (1685-1753), a Protestant philosopher and future Bishop, to establish a college in Bermuda, a plan that was not realized (Saunders, p. 80). The portrait (176.5 × 236.2 cm) of 'Dean Berkeley and his Entourage' would remain in Smibert's studio until 1808 when it was presented to Yale College.
Life dates for John Wainwright, judge and Baron of the Exchequer (1732-1741), are given as ca. 1689-1741 at the National Gallery of Ireland (mezzotint date 1742: John Brooks, engraver, Irish, fl.1730-1756); after James Latham: Irish, 1696-1747] at the National Gallery of Ireland, http://onlinecollection.nationalgallery.ie/objects/268/john-wainwright-c16891741-baron-of-the-exchequer;jsessionid=8F482B7D4A7A1E0248C6B8058EA85EA7?ctx=6fc32faf-8fbb-41c2-9501-a55241ee59e4&idx=1