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459 STUDIO OF JOSHUA REYNOLDS (1723-1792)A portrait of Captain Byron
oil on canvas 126cm x 100cm
€ 35,000 - 45,000
John Byron (1723-1786) ‘Foul Weather Buck’ is John Byron, British vice-admiral, the second son of the 4th Lord Byron, and
grandfather of the poet, was born on the 8th of November 1723. He joined the navy as a midshipman but would go on to be
considered one of the finest sailors in all of England; despite his dogged bad luck for which he received the nickname of ‘Foul
Weather Jack’. During one of his expeditions he was wrecked on the southern coast of Chile but survived and proceeded to
write up his adventures as ‘The Narrative of Hon. John Byron, Containing an Account of the Great Distresses’ (1768), which his
grandson, George Gordon Byron, used in his satirical poem ‘Don Juan’ (1819-1824). Habitually in action against the French,
he was chosen to command a secret British expedition in the Dolphin frigate - one of the first British ships to have a copper
sheeted hull - to the Falkland Islands to break into the Spanish trade. Afterwards, he completed the circumnavigation of the
globe, claiming various Pacific islands for the Crown.
The provenance of the present example is with Torridon House in the Scottish Highlands, the estate, which once belonged to
the Duke of Leeds and is now home to the Earl and Countess of Lovelace, is sandwiched between rugged, soaring mountains
and the deep blue of a sea loch. The family auctioned the contents of the house in 2015 offering a wonderful collection of
furniture, paintings and other works of art to the public. The connection with the Byron family resulted from the marriage
between Lord King William who married Augusta Ada Byron, the only legitimate daughter George Gordon, 6th Baron Byron.
The Lovelace title was chosen to mark the fact that Ada was, through the families of Byron, Milbanke, Noel and Lovelace, a
descendant of the Barons Lovelace of Hurley. This union brought the promise, in marriage settlement, of vast estates in the
Midlands and also political advantage, for Ada’s cousin was Lord Melbourne, the Whig Prime Minister.
In this quarter-length portrait Byron is presented in an appropriate manner of attire wearing his captain’s undress uniform
and a grey wig. He is set against a dark clouded filled background, with a small patch of light blue sky out of which sails a ship
from the British Fleet. Byron strikes a formidable presence in this portrait reflecting his many successive years of dedicated
and hard service. The numerous long and arduous expeditions is succinctly captured in the line inscribed on the frame, from
Byron’s poem, ‘Epistle to Augusta’, ‘Our grandsire’s fate of yore /He had no rest at sea.’
Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) was apprenticed in 1740 to the portrait painter Thomas Hudson, (1701-90) and after early work
in his native Devon travelled to Italy in 1749. He returned in 1753 to London and rapidly began to establish himself as a
portrait painter, profoundly influenced by his time in Italy. He was the most influential figure of the century in elevating British
painting and portraiture which paved the way for a generation of work. Reynolds borrowed poses from the old masters, such
as Lord Bryon’s strong stance with arms crossed and his left hand holding onto the sword hilt, which dignified the status of
the sitter.