Sir Peter Warren

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Sir Peter Warren

by Thomas Hudson
oil on canvas, circa 1751
53 1/2 in. x 52 in. (1359 mm x 1321 mm)
Given by Dr D.M. McDonald, 1977
Primary Collection
NPG 5158

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Thomas Hudson (1701-1779), Portrait painter and art collector. Artist or producer associated with 182 portraits.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 643
  • Simon, Jacob, The Art of the Picture Frame: Artists, Patrons and the Framing of Portraits in Britain, 1997 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 8 November 1996 - 9 February 1997), p. 94, 159 Read entry

    Carved and gilt pine, mitred, the surface refinished and the sight edge altered. 5 1⁄ 4 inches wide.

    This frame type was favoured by Thomas Hudson in the 1750s. With its wide, spreading centres and corners, inset cross-hatched panels and swept sides with concave top rail and applied clasps at the pierced mid-points, the style is a somewhat gauche English translation of French frame types of the period. Indeed, Hudson's five-week visit to Paris and the Low Countries in August 1748 may have encouraged him to adopt new frame styles at a time when his chief rival in the London portrait market, Allan Ramsay, had recently introduced a French-inspired frame of his own.

    The frame on this portrait of the Louisbourg hero, Admiral Sir Peter Warren, has had its sight edge replaced by a lamb's tongue instead of the more usual gadrooning. It is one of three portraits of the Admiral which Hudson painted in 1751 or 1752 at a total cost of £114.19s, according to a payment made by his widow after his sudden death in July 1752; this sum probably included the frames.1

    Other portraits by Hudson in this frame type include two three-quarter lengths, Cornelius Dutch, 1756 (Apothecaries Hall; frame payment to Hudson), and Lady Oxenden, c.1756 (Private Collection), the half-length Unknown Man (Sotheby's, 3 April 1996, lot 46) and the large Family of Sir William Courtenay, 1756 (Powderham Castle). The type was used in a much grander form on Hudson's portrait of Handel. Somewhat similar frames can be found on seascapes by Hudson's close acquaintance, Samuel Scott. The framemaker who can most closely be associated with Thomas Hudson is Joseph Duffour, a leading carver and gilder of French Catholic extraction. His name occurs in Hudson's bank account in 1751 and again in 1752-3, and he was probably the 'Duffour' paid for repairing the frame of Hudson’s Benn's Club of Aldermen for the Goldsmiths' Company in 1762.2

    1 Information about this payment supplied by Julian Gwyn, 11 October 1977.

    2 Hudson's bank account was at Coutts & Co. For the Goldsmiths' picture, see Ellen Miles and Jacob Simon, Thomas Hudson 1701-1779, exhibition catalogue, Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood, 1979, no.52. Samuel Scott's large views at Felbrigg may have been framed by Duffour; see Felbrigg Hall, Norfolk, guidebook, 1987, p 15. A payment of £25 to 'Duffour' occurs in William Windham II's account book in the Norfolk and Norwich Record Office (information via Alastair Laing).

Events of 1751back to top

Current affairs

Frederick, Prince of Wales dies and is succeeded by his son, later George III, as Prince of Wales.
Third Gin Act requires government inspection of distilleries and restricts sales to licensed premises in an effort to curtail consumption.

Art and science

Thomas Gray publishes his poem Elegy written in a Country Church Yard.
Philosopher David Hume publishes An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals.
Eliza Haywood publishes her novel The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless.
William Hogarth publishes his satirical engravings Beer-Street, Gin Lane and The Four Stages of Cruelty.

International

Robert Clive reopens hostilities with the French in India. He prevails after holding out during the siege of Arcot.
First part of the Encyclopédie - an innovative 28 volume encyclopedia which represented the dominant strains of Enlightenment thinking - is published in France, edited by Diderot.
Swedish chemist Alex Cronstedt identifies nickel as an impurity in copper ore as a separate metallic element.

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