John Manners, Marquess of Granby

This portraitback to top

A perhaps contemporary, or near contemporary, copy of the head of one of the two portrait types by Reynolds of c.1759 or 1766, both face masks very similar. Waterhouse dates the former to 1760 [1] but from Reynolds' note of December 1759 'Copy. Ld. Granby half length for Lady Aylsford' [2] and a payment, among others recorded in his ledgers, for a Kit-cat of Granby before 1760, it must be somewhat earlier. [3] The prototype is not certainly established. Among a number of portraits corresponding to C. Spooner's mezzotint dated 1760 there was one given, with a payment noted for April 1764, [4] to Mr Shaftoe, now collection Sir Allan Adair, Bart. Another from the Egremont collection, at Christie's, 21 May 1892, lot 94, belongs to the Earl of Wemyss. Reynolds' equestrian portrait, sittings in June 1764 and 1766, with an appointment for his horse at 11, 3 June 1765, [5] was given to the Maréchal de Broglie, Granby's defeated opponent: 'Lord Granby, with a Horse. Given to, Marshal Broglio ...’ [6] Exhibited at the Society of Artists 1766 (137) it is now owned by the Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, USA. Repetitions are in the Royal collection (Sir Oliver Millar, The Later Georgian Pictures in the collection of Her Majesty The Queen, 1969, II, 1022), and at Trinity College, Cambridge, [7] with variants at Belvoir, Petworth, and formerly at Stowe. [8] A gouache (9 ¼ x 7 ½ in.) similar to NPG 1186, belonged c.1926 to Lt-Col. G. B. Croft Lyons.

Footnotesback to top

1) Sir Ellis K. Waterhouse, Reynolds (English Master Painters), 1941, p 48.
2) Sitter book, opposite 17 December 1759.
3) M. Cormack, 'The Ledgers of Sir Joshua Reynolds', Walpole Society, XLII, 1970, p 120.
4) Ibid, p 121.
5) C. R. Leslie and T. Taylor, Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1865, p 253, note 2.
6) M. Cormack, 'The Ledgers of Sir Joshua Reynolds', Walpole Society, XLII, 1970, p 152: ‘Paid in Full - £250 0 0', 3 July 1773.
7) Ibid, for references to further portraits.
8) Sir George Scharf's Sketchbooks, XLV, p 137.

Physical descriptionback to top

Bald, sparse hair at nape of neck; black stock, double-breasted uniform coat; black background encircling head. A label with a number 195 now removed to the picture dossier.

Conservationback to top

A little rubbed in the face; a small round damage in the background, right.

Provenanceback to top

Bought, 1899, from Graves & Co, London.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Kerslake, Early Georgian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1977, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

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