ALLAN RAMSAY (1713-1784) Presumed Portrait... - Lot 21 - Osenat

Lot 21
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10000 - 12000 EUR
ALLAN RAMSAY (1713-1784) Presumed Portrait... - Lot 21 - Osenat
ALLAN RAMSAY (1713-1784) Presumed Portrait of Sir Richard Grenville-Temple, 2nd Earl Temple Oil on panel, unsigned 25 x 20.3 cm Gilded and carved wood frame. This is most likely a rare modello for the large official portrait in the Victoria Museum, Melbourne Provenance: Private collection Related work : Allan RAMSAY (1713-1784), Portrait of Sir William Temple, Three-Quarter Length, No. 50, Freeman Fine Arts, Philadelphia PA, USA (reproduced) Biographies: Richard GRENVILLE-TEMPLE, 2nd Earl Temple, (26 September 1711 - 12 September 1779) was a British politician. He is known for his association with his brother-in-law William Pitt and served in the latter's government during the Seven Years' War between 1756 and 1761. He resigned along with Pitt in protest after the cabinet refused to declare war on Spain. Richard Grenville was the eldest son of Richard Grenville (1678-1727) of Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire and Hester, the future Countess Temple. He studied at Eton College and, in 1734, was elected Member of Parliament for the Buckingham district. In 1752, on the death of his mother, he inherited her titles and properties at Stowe and Wootton; and added the name Temple to his family name, Grenville. The marriage of his sister Hester in 1754 to William Pitt, later Earl of Chatham, marked a turning point in his political career. Although Lord Temple had no unusual qualities, his political career was to be linked to that of his brother-in-law. In November 1756, Temple was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty under the Devonshire and Pitt government. Unappreciated by King George II, he and Pitt were removed from their posts in April 1757. But when the union government of the Duke of Newcastle and Pitt was formed in June of that year, Temple was given the office of Lord Privy Seal. He was the only member of the cabinet to support the proposal made by Pitt to declare war on Spain in 1761, following the rejection of this proposal by the cabinet, both men resigned, on 5 October. Allan RAMSAY (Edinburgh, 13 October 1713 - Dover, 10 August 1784), son of the poet Allan Ramsay, was the main representative of the generation of English portraitists who prepared the classical era of Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough. He trained in London and completed his training in Rome and Naples with Francesco Solimena. On his return to London in 1738, his only serious competitor was Thomas Hudson, with whom he shared a drapery painter, Joseph van Aken. In 1761 it was Ramsay, not Reynolds, who was appointed painter to the king. His later portraits are characterized by their soft colors and French elegance. Around 1770 he gave up painting to devote himself to literature.
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