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Lot Essay
The sitter was the son of Henry Pelham (later Cressett Pelham) of Crowhurst Place, Sussex, and Cound Hall, Shropshire, and Jane, daughter of Nicholas Hardinge of Kingston-upon-Thames. He served as Member of Parliament for Lewes from 1796 to 1802, although he had a 'commission of lunacy' taken against him in 1801. He had recovered by 1802 and, after his father's death in 1803, moved to his Shropshire estate. There he appears to have settled as a landowner for almost twenty years, acquiring a reputation as something of an eccentric field sportsman. He returned to Parliament as Member for Shropshire from 1822 to 1832, and subsequently for Shrewsbury from 1835 until 1837. He died in Mauritius in 1838.
In his Memoirs... (op.cit.), the artist's son the Rev. John Romney states:
'I have already alluded to his quick manner of painting.... In the picture of a youth of the name of Pelham, represented in his shooting dress and reposing upon a bank, having a brace of dead partridges lying near him. The birds were done in half-an-hour. They are done in a dashing and apparently slovenly style: but when seen at a proper distance, and in accordance with the general effect, the deception becomes so perfect that one might almost be tempted to go and take them up.'
These remarks capture one of the defining achievements of the picture, for the freedom and confidence evident in the artist's work are echoed in the demeanor of the sitter. His is the confidence of youth and few portraits tell more of the freedom of country life; the landscape, the attentive hound, the brace of dead partridge.
Romney's portraits of children are well-known for the artist's instinctive grasp of his subjects; none more so than in his most ambitious work, The Children of the Earl Gower (sold in these Rooms, 23 June 1972, lot 109, 140,000 gns., now at Abbot Hall, Kendal). A particularly enchanting example which recently appeared on the market was the Portrait of Dorothy Stables and her Daughters, Harriet and Maria (Christie's, 15 November 1996, lot 29, £240,000).
Dateable to the mid-1780s, Master Pelham is one of Romney's most important later works. It exemplifies the very quality of informality that is now so admired in the greatest of eighteenth century portraits.
In his Memoirs... (op.cit.), the artist's son the Rev. John Romney states:
'I have already alluded to his quick manner of painting.... In the picture of a youth of the name of Pelham, represented in his shooting dress and reposing upon a bank, having a brace of dead partridges lying near him. The birds were done in half-an-hour. They are done in a dashing and apparently slovenly style: but when seen at a proper distance, and in accordance with the general effect, the deception becomes so perfect that one might almost be tempted to go and take them up.'
These remarks capture one of the defining achievements of the picture, for the freedom and confidence evident in the artist's work are echoed in the demeanor of the sitter. His is the confidence of youth and few portraits tell more of the freedom of country life; the landscape, the attentive hound, the brace of dead partridge.
Romney's portraits of children are well-known for the artist's instinctive grasp of his subjects; none more so than in his most ambitious work, The Children of the Earl Gower (sold in these Rooms, 23 June 1972, lot 109, 140,000 gns., now at Abbot Hall, Kendal). A particularly enchanting example which recently appeared on the market was the Portrait of Dorothy Stables and her Daughters, Harriet and Maria (Christie's, 15 November 1996, lot 29, £240,000).
Dateable to the mid-1780s, Master Pelham is one of Romney's most important later works. It exemplifies the very quality of informality that is now so admired in the greatest of eighteenth century portraits.