Y After Joshua Reynolds, Edward Gibbon, wearing red coat

Y After Joshua Reynolds
Edward Gibbon, wearing red coat and waistcoat with fur trim, white stock and frilled chemise
Watercolour on ivory, oval
Inscribed and indistinctly dated Portrait de Gibbon au Baron du Thielmann a Dresse en Saxe 17?8 (to card verso)
8.5cm (3¼ in.) high
In a rectangular papier-mâché frame

Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) was an English historian, writer and Member of Parliament. His best known work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788.

The present lot is a copy of the portrait by Joshua Reynolds, currently in a private collection.