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Lot Essay
Sir Thomas George Skipwith, 4th Bt. (c.1735-1790), of Newbold Pacey Hall, near Warwick, was the eldest son of Sir Francis Skipwith, 3rd Bt. (d.1778), and Ursula, youngest daughter of Thomas Cartwright of Aynho, Northamptonshire. He was aged eighteen when admitted as a Fellow Commoner at Trinity College, Cambridge, on 22 April 1754. He was, according to the Abbé Grant 'a most sensible and clever man' (Holroyd letters MSS, f.166, 7 February 1765). He travelled to Rome en route to Greece, Constantinople and Asia Minor in December 1764, and may have been there again in 1766 (see lot 22, a portrait of the sitter's younger brother Francis William Skipwith (c.1737-1781) for further discussion).
The present portrait is datable to circa 1784, when Sir Thomas would have been aged 49, and is stylistically comparable with its swift, feathered brushwork, to Stuart's portrait of the artist John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) painted the same year (National Portrait Gallery, London). From September 1775 until 1787 Gilbert Stuart worked in London, first in the studio of Benjamin West, P.R.A. (1738-1820), and then establishing his own practice as a fashionable portrait painter of the English and various Americans who found themselves in the capital. However, in 1787 Stuart fled to Dublin perhaps to escape creditors, remaining there for five years before returning to great success in America.
The present portrait is datable to circa 1784, when Sir Thomas would have been aged 49, and is stylistically comparable with its swift, feathered brushwork, to Stuart's portrait of the artist John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) painted the same year (National Portrait Gallery, London). From September 1775 until 1787 Gilbert Stuart worked in London, first in the studio of Benjamin West, P.R.A. (1738-1820), and then establishing his own practice as a fashionable portrait painter of the English and various Americans who found themselves in the capital. However, in 1787 Stuart fled to Dublin perhaps to escape creditors, remaining there for five years before returning to great success in America.