Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton
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Oval portrait of Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton (1767-1852), aged twenty-one, painted on a rectangular canvas. Alexander is shown in half-length pose, turned to the right, with his face straight on. He has dark curly hair and wears historical dress consisting of a black doublet with puffed shoulders and an elaborate stiff lace collar. The background is plain brown.
Thomas Gainsborough painted the heir to the duchy of Hamilton in a severe black and white costume in the Spanish style of the Renaissance. His sombre clothes mark his superiority to how his younger brother Archibald appears in a portrait at Waddesdon also painted by Gainsborough (acc. no. 2558). The lace collar may have been added later as a reference to the 17th-century painter Anthony van Dyck.
Thomas Gainsborough painted this portrait at the height of his career in London, where he had established a studio in 1774. The portrait and its pendant, both hanging in the Morning Room, were commissioned by the sitter's father, the 9th Duke of Hamilton, who was a Scottish aristocrat and M.P. for Lanarkshire from 1769-1772. The portraits of Alexander and Archibald were exhibited by Gainsborough in his studio at Schomberg House in Pall Mall, London in 1786. Contemporaries commented that Alexander was shown in historical dress with his hair styled in a manner to match the drapery of his clothes
The lace collar may have been added later, as it does not sit comfortably in relation to Alexander's head. It may have been added to recall a portrait that van Dyck made of Alexander's ancestor, the 1st Duke of Hamilton which shows the Duke in dark clothes with a white collar. The prints after this portrait showed it in oval form, similar to the format Gainsborough used for his two paintings of the Hamilton brothers.
Alexander inherited his father's title on his death in 1819. He later became an MP, Ambassador to Russia, and held several important posts at the British court, in the Freemasons, and also at the British Museum. He was a reputed collector of art and books, but was also known as a dandy with a timid and changeable temperament. He succeeded his father as Duke in 1819. He married Susan, the second daughter and co-heiress of William Beckford of Fonthill. Sir Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough's great rival, had painted Alexander in 1782 at the age of 15 (National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh) for William Beckford. Through his marriage, Alexander acquired a number of books now on the shelves of the Morning Room at Waddesdon. Ferdinand also acquired furniture from this collection too.
The two portraits stayed in the Hamilton family, passing through Alexander's sister, Charlotte, into the family of the Duke of Somerset, into which she married. Ferdinand de Rothschild purchased the painting from the Dukes of Somerset via a dealer in 1891, the year the Morning Room was completed. The work complements the 17th-century Dutch and Flemish paintings displayed in this room.
Phillippa Plock, 2011
Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)
631 x 760
Signature & date
not signed or dated
Provenance
- Commissioned by the sitter's father Archibald, 9th Duke of Hamilton (b.1740, d.1819); by descent to his daughter, the sitter's sister, Charlotte Hamilton, Duchess of Somerset (b.1772, d.1827); by descent to Edward Adolphus Seymour, 12th Duke of Somerset (b.1805, d.1885), of Stover Lodge, Cornwall; bought by Thomas Agnew & Sons Ltd from Duke of Somerset sale, from Stover Lodge, 28 June 1890, lot no. 24; bought from Agnew's by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (b.1839, d.1898) 7 May 1891; inherited by his sister Alice de Rothschild (b.1847, d.1922); inherited by her great-nephew James de Rothschild (b.1878, d.1957); bequeathed to Waddesdon (National Trust) in 1957.
Exhibition history
- Gainsborough Private Exhibition, London: Schomberg House, 1786
- Royal Academy Exhibition, London, 1891, no. 23, lent by William Agnew
- 'The Four Georges', London: 25 Park Lane, 1931, no. 53, lent by James A. de Rothschild
Collection
- Waddesdon (National Trust)
- Bequest of James de Rothschild, 1957
Bibliography
- William T. Whitley; Thomas Gainsborough; London; Smith, Elder; 1915; p. 266
- Editorial: A Rothschild Collection for the Nation, The Burlington Magazine, 99, 1957, 223-225; p. 223, fig. 3
- Ellis Waterhouse; Gainsborough; London; Edward Hulton Limited; 1958; p. 72, no. 338
- Ellis Waterhouse, The English Pictures at Waddesdon Manor, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 54, August 1959, 49-56; p. 54
- ♦; Sir Francis Watson, The Art Collections at Waddesdon Manor I: The Paintings, Apollo, 69, June 1959, 172-182; p. 175, fig. 6, ill. without frame
- Ellis Waterhouse, Anthony Blunt; Paintings: The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor; Fribourg; Office du Livre, The National Trust; 1967; pp. 40-41, cat. no. 6
- Hugh Belsey; Thomas Gainsborough: The Portraits, Fancy Pictures and Copies After Old Masters (Volume 1 and 2); 1-2; The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Yale University Press; 2019; cat. 435, vol. I, pp. 433-434, ill.
Subject person
- Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton, Sitter
- Archibald, 9th Duke of Hamilton, Patron
- Anthony van Dyck, Alluded to in image