Studio of Sir Joshua Reynolds, PRA, British 1723-1792- Portrait of Sir Charles Pratt, latterly 1st Earl Camden, PC (1714-1794), half-length, wearing judicial robes; oil on canvas, 72.5 x 60.5 cm. Provenance: Anon. sale, Sotheby’s, London, 8...

Studio of Sir Joshua Reynolds, PRA,

British 1723-1792-

Portrait of Sir Charles Pratt, latterly 1st Earl Camden, PC (1714-1794), half-length, wearing judicial robes;

oil on canvas, 72.5 x 60.5 cm.

Provenance: Anon. sale, Sotheby’s, London, 8 April 1992, lot 48 (as by Sir Joshua Reynolds).

Exhibited: Camden Town Hall (Mayor’s Parlour), London Borough of Camden, until 2022 (long loan).

Literature: David Mannings and Martin Postle, 'Joshua Reynolds: A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings', New Haven/London, 2000, p.382, cat.1475a.

Note: The present work is a version of a full-length standing portrait of Sir Charles Pratt, painted in 1764-5, which was reduced in 1968, and which is held at the Guidhall Art Gallery, London [no.40] (Mannings 1475). An additional small full-length version is in an American private collection, since 1925 (Mannings 1475b). Three other compositional variants of the sitter, by Reynolds, are known. One, painted in c.1765-66, resides in a private collection, with a half-length copy held at the National Portrait Gallery, London [NPG459] (Mannings 1476 and 1476a). The second, painted in 1767, is a three-quarter length seated version, which sold at Christie’s, 31 July 1947, lot 94 (Mannings 1477), a copy of which from Bayham Abbey was on the London art market in 1976 (Mannings 1477a). The third, dating to c.1778, also in a private collection, shows the sitter three-quarter length in private dress (Mannings 1478). The present work is probably the ‘Copy of Lord C J Prat [sic]’ mentioned in Reynolds’s memorandum of the week beginning 10 December 1764, which Mannings also mentions under 1475a.

Charles Pratt was an English lawyer, judge and Whig politician who was first to hold the title of Earl Camden. As a lawyer and judge he was a leading proponent of civil liberties, championing the rights of the jury, and limiting the powers of the State. He held the offices of Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Attorney-General and Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, and was a confidante of Pitt the Elder, supporting Pitt in the controversies over John Wilkes and American independence. However, he clung to office himself, even when Pitt was out of power, serving in the cabinet for fifteen years and under five different prime ministers. During his life, Pratt played a leading role in opposing perpetual copyright, resolving the regency crisis of 1788 and in championing Fox's Libel Bill. He started the development of the settlement that was later to become Camden Town in London. With piercing grey eyes, he is here presented in his role as Lord Chancellor, wearing his red robes of the chief justice with a magnificent chain of office and the ‘SS’ collar. Aside from Reynolds, he was painted by several leading artists of the period, including Nathaniel Dance (NPG336), Thomas Hudson, and Thomas Gainsborough.
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