portrait of thomas powys, 2nd lord lilford of lilford 1775-1825

Son of Thomas Powys, 1st Baron Lilford of Lilford, Thomas Powys, 1st Baron Lilford (4 May 1743-26 January 1800), was a British peer and Member of Parliament. Lilford was elected to the House of Commons for Northamptonshire in 1774, a seat he held until 1797. The latter year he was raised to the peerage as Baron Lilford, of Lilford in the County of Northampton. Lord Lilford married Mary, daughter of Galfridus Mann, in 1777. He died in January 1800, aged 56, and was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son Thomas. Lady Lilford died in 1823.
The second Baron married Henrietta Maria eldest daughter and coheir of Robert Vernon Atherton formerly Guillym of Atherton Hall. Baron Lilford, of Lilford in the County of Northampton, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1797 for Thomas Powys, who had previously represented Northamptonshire in the House of Commons. His grandson, the third Baron, served as a Lord-in-Waiting (government whip) from 1837 to 1841 in the Whig administration of Lord Melbourne. On the death of his grandson, the sixth Baron, in 1949, the line of the eldest son of the second Baron failed. The late Baron was succeeded by his second cousin once removed, the seventh Baron. He was the great-great-grandson of the Hon. Robert Vernon Powys, second son of the second Baron. As of 2007 the title is held by his only son, the eighth Baron, who succeeded in 2005.
Lilford Hall and associated parkland is located north-west of the village. The hall was built around 1635 and alterations were made in the 18th Century by Henry Flitcroft for Thomas Pavys. His grandson was created the first Lord Lilford by William Pitt, and Lilford remained the family home until the mid-1940''s when it was sold to pay death duties of the fifth Lord Lilford. The seventh Lord Lilford bought back Lilford Hall and Park and for the past 20 years the restocked aviaries, containing more than 350 birds of 110 species have been open to the public. In the autumn of 1990 Lilford park was closed to the public.
Henry William Pickersgill, a painter, was born in London on 3 December 1782. He was adopted early in life by Mr. Hall, a silk manufacturer in Spitalfields, who sent him to a school at Poplar, and at the age of sixteen placed him in his own business. The war with France, however, caused a decline in the silk trade and in Mr. Hall''s business, so that Pickersgill, who had already imbibed a love of painting and displayed some skill in draughtsmanship, determined to adopt painting as a profession. He was a pupil of George Arnald, A.R.A., from 1802 to 1805, when he was admitted as a student in the Royal Academy, having obtained an introduction to Fuseli, then keeper, through a surgeon who attended on him during a severe illness.
Pickersgill at first painted, besides portraits, historical subjects or those from poetry and mythology. He exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy in 1806, sending a portrait of Mr. Hall, in 1808 one of himself, and in 1809 one of Mrs. W. Hall. Subsequently he devoted his time almost entirely to portrait painting. He was for over sixty years a constant and prolific exhibitor at the Royal Academy, where nearly four hundred paintings of his were shown at one time or another. He was elected an associate in 1822 and a royal academician in 1826. After the death of Thomas Phillips, R.A. in 1845, Pickersgill obtained almost a monopoly of painting the portraits of men and women of eminence in every walk in life. In this way he painted nearly all the most celebrated people of his time.
He had a studio for some time in Soho Square, and latterly in Stratford Place, Oxford Street, where hardly a day passed without some person of distinction crossing his threshold. In the National Portrait Gallery there are portraits by him of Wordsworth, William Godwin, Jeremy Bentham, M. G. Lewis, Hannah More, George Stephenson, and Judge Talfourd. For Sir Robert Peel he painted Richard Owen, Cuvier, Humboldt, and Hallam; and for Lord Hill a portrait of General Lord Hill, and a full-length portrait of the Duke of Wellington. His portrait of Mr. Vernon passed, with Pickersgill''s picture of ?The Syrian Maid? in the Vernon collection, to the National Gallery. There are numerous portraits by Pickersgill in the college halls at Oxford. His portrait of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (in the possession of Mr. Moulton Barrett) was in the Victorian Exhibition at the new gallery in 1892; and also those of Faraday (Royal Institution), Sir John Herschel (St. John''s College, Cambridge), Dr. Robert Brown (Linnean Society), and J. G. Lockhart (Mr. John Murray).
Pickersgill was a competent painter, and could catch a likeness; but his portraits, if solid and straightforward, lack finesse and distinction. In 1856, on the death of T. Uwins, R.A., Pickersgill became librarian of the Royal Academy, and held the post until his death. He exhibited for the last time in 1872, placed himself on the list of retired academicians in 1873, and died at his house at Barnes on 21 April 1875, aged 93. He married a lady of some literary abilities, who, in 1827, published a volume of verse, entitled ?Tales of the Harem.? Many of Pickersgill''s subject-pictures, as well as his portraits, were engraved.

Antiques.co.uk Ref: X9Q624RH

Materials:

Oil on Canvas

Width (cm):

127 x 101.6(cm) (50 x 40 ins.)

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