Study for the Portrait of Admiral Thomas Smith

Study for the Portrait of Admiral Thomas Smith
Study for the Portrait of Admiral Thomas Smith
Study for the Portrait of Admiral Thomas Smith
National Galleries of Scotland / Photography by Antonia Reeve. William Findlay Watson Bequest 1881
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
Study for the Portrait of Admiral Thomas Smith
Date
c.1744
Medium
Black chalk and stump heightened with white on blue paper, inlaid
Dimensions
Metric: 383 x 270 mm
Imperial: 14 11/16 x 10 5/8 in.
Accession Number
D 3221
Wilson Online Reference
D1
Description
Portrait of Admiral Thomas Smith, appointed Commander-in-Chief of Ships in Scotland in 1744. He wears a wig and appears head and shoulders, turned to the right, while his head is inclined almost full face.
Exhibited
Leicester October 1952, Old Master Drawings (74); Glasgow 1953-54, English Drawings (2); London RA 1956-57, Exhibition of British Portraits; Tokyo, National Museum of Western Art 1975, English Portraits (118); National Gallery of Scotland, Drawings from the Bequest of W.F. Watson 1881-1981, Edinburgh 1981 (36); London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (3)
Provenance
[?] John Richards, R.A.; W. Esdaile sale, Christie's 21 March 1838, bt Vaughan; W.F. Watson, an Edinburgh bookseller; bequest of W.F. Watson, 1881
Signature/inscription
Inscribed, lower right, in black ink: R.W
Techniques and materials
As noted by Solkin, the drawing is very much in the tradition of Kneller and the older Richardson and is especially like comparable works by Allan Ramsay, whom Wilson no doubt met through the St Martin's Lane Academy.
Subject
Admiral Thomas Smith (1707-1762), illegitimate son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton, began a naval career as a junior lieutenant in 1728 and rose through the ranks to his appontment as Commander-in-Chief of Ships in Scotland in 1744.
Related Paintings
P9 Hagley Hall, Worcestershire
P9A National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
Critical commentary
E.K. Waterhouse identified this drawing as a study of Smith by Wilson (Ford 1951, p.15, n.1). It was part of his preparation for two portraits in oil, P9 (collection of Viscount Cobham, Hagley Hall) and P9A (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich). Ford and Baker correctly note that it is slightly closer to the Greenwich version (see Bibliography), for example in the arrangement of the curls of the wig. The portraits were painted in 1744, when the sitter was appointed commodore, and are the artist's earliest works in this genre. The drawing bears out Edward Edwards's comments that Wilson 'drew a head equal to any of the portrait painters of his time.' (Edwards 1808. p.80.)
Bibliography
Edwards 1808, p. 80; Ford 1951, p.51, pl.1B; WGC, p. 151, pl. 2c; Baker 2011, pp. 413 & 414 repr.; Solkin 1982, p. 145
Updated by Compiler
2019-11-12 00:00:00