Attributed to Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. Portrait of Admiral Honorable Samuel Barrington

Property from a Private Collection
Attributed to Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A.
Plympton 1723 - 1792 London
Portrait of Admiral Honorable Samuel Barrington

oil on canvas
canvas: 30 ⅛ by 25 ⅛ in.; 76.5 by 63.8 cm.
framed: 38 ¾ by 33 ¾ in.; 98.4 by 85.7 cm.

Condition Report:
The canvas has an old glue relining and is taut and stable on its stretcher. The image reads quite well beneath a clear varnish that may have slightly dulled over time. Inspection under UV light reveals a very streaky varnish that somewhat impedes examination, but beneath which strokes of retouching to address past surface craquelure appear to fluoresce. An approximately three-inch horizontal line at upper left may reflect a past repair to the canvas. The work should hang as is. Offered in an elegantly carved and gilded wood frame.

Catalogue Note:
This elegant work depicts the British Navy leader Samuel Barrington (1729-1800), who sat for Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1779. A son of John Shute, 1st Viscount Barrington, and his wife Anne Daines, Samuel Barrington enjoyed a long, distinguished career, eventually rising to the rank of Admiral in 1787. During the Revolutionary War Barrington served as commander in chief of the West Indies, overseeing the British capture of Saint Lucia in 1778. In the present work, the white-haired sitter, depicted half-length, wears a flag-officer's full-dress uniform. His dark blue coat is embellished with wide white lapels trimmed with gold braid and offset by the brass buttons.

Barrington sat for Reynolds several times during November of the following year and produced the prime version of the present composition for the sitter's elder brother, William Wildman, 2nd Viscount Barrington.1 That version (Greenwich, National Maritime Museum, inv. no. BMC 2534), which has a distinctly lighter background (due to Reynolds's initial use of a fugitive blue verditer pigment that he had been sold as genuine ultramarine). Contemporary versions of Reynolds' prime were given to the six officers who had served under Barrington on the HMS Prince of Wales in Saint Lucia.2 The production of multiple near-contemporary versions, all of the same dimensions, complicate the definitive identification of the present painting's early provenance.

Later in life, Barrington was depicted by John Singleton Copley (London, National Portrait Gallery, inv. no. NPG 5519) and Gilbert Stuart (New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery).

1 Wildman paid Reynolds £52.10s for the painting, which his brother, Shute Barrington, Bishop of Durham, donated to the Greenwich Hospital in 1824.

2 See Mannings 2000, p. 75, cat. nos. 120a-g.

Provenance:
Probably Thomas Purvis, Esq., London;

Probably his estate sale, London, Christie's, 1 June 1849, lot 26;

Probably where acquired by Anthony, for 5.5.0 gns.;

Probably anonymous sale ("Property of a Nobleman, and removed from St. James's Square"), London, Christie's, 14 May 1855, lot 34;

Probably where acquired by Hickman, for 13.13.0 gns.;

Probably Charles Heath Warner (1811-1879), Esq., London;

Probably by whose executors sold, London, Christie's, 28 November 1879, lot 101;

Probably where acquired by Durham, for 6.16.6 gns.;

General R. MacKenzie, London, by 1899;

With John Levy, New York;

City Art Museum of Saint Louis, 1922 (inv. no. 106:22);

By whom deaccessioned ("Property of the Saint Louis Art Museum"), New York, Sotheby's, 17 January 1985, lot 140;

Where acquired by a private collector, Virginia;

Thence by descent to the present collector.