[Portrait of George Stubbs]

Book Description

circa 1775. Drypoint by James Bretherton after. 7 5/8 x 5 1/2 inches. Inscription: "Mr. Orde f.*** A Sketch ***Bretherton/---Quae cur[a] nitentes/Pingere equ[i]---." A fine character study of Stubbs aged about 50. The artist is shown, half-length in profile, seated at an easel, intent on an unseen subject. His left arm is raised, brush in hand, before a canvas with the outline of a prancing horse visible. His palette rests on his right fore-arm. He is wearing a frock coat and knee breeches. According to the DNB, Thomas Orde (afterwards Orde-Powlett) first Baron Bolton, was "educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge...While at Cambridge, he studied the art of etching, and showed great skill 'in taking off any peculiarity of person.' This was a dangerous gift, but he never portrayed any one likely to become an object of ridicule. Three portraits by him in 1768 of D. Randall, fruit-seller at Cambridge, and of Mother Hammond, are described in Wordsworth's University Life in the Eighteenth Century (pp. 453-4). The particulars of his etching in the same year of a very stout man, and in 1769 of William Lynch, an old seller of pamphlets, are set out in the Catalogue of Satirical Prints at the British Museum....The names of the performers in the 'Cambridge concert,' which is usually attributed to him, are given in the Catalogue of Satirical Prints ; but, according to Hawkins, the design was by Orde, and the etching by Sir Abraham Hume. He also etched his father, mother, and younger brother, and drew a pen-and-ink sketch of Voltaire acting in one of his own tragedies. To the Account of King's College Chapel, 1769, which bears the name of Henry Malden, chapter clerk, is prefixed his portrait by Orde. The profits from the sale of these etchings were given by him to the characters whom he drew." Orde went on to pursue a highly successful career in politics, rising to be chief secretary to the Duke of Rutland during his time as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and a member of the privy council in Ireland. "Orde married at Marylebone, on 7 April 1778, Jean Mary Browne Powlett, natural daughter of Charles, fifth duke of Bolton, by Mary Browne Banks, on whom...the greater part of the extensive estates were entailed. On the death of the sixth duke.. the property passed to Orde in right of his wife, and by royal license he assumed, on 7 Jan. 1795, the additional surname of Powlett. On 20 Oct. 1797 he was created Baron Bolton of Bolton Castle, Yorkshire, in the peerage of Great Britain. In 1791 he was appointed Governor and Vice-Admiral of the Isle of Wight, and in 1800 he was created lord-lieutenant of Hampshire. He was also a lord of trade and plantations, receiver-general of the duchy-court of Lancaster, and registrar, examiner, and first clerk of the county palatine of Lancaster" (DNB). Lennox-Boyd, p.379; Nagler II, p.139.

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