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拍品專文
For details on Pelham's illustrious political career please see lot 163. John Roberts was Pelham's secretary from 1743 until 1754. An astute and able man, he was chiefly in charge of making payments to secret agents and it is said that after Pelham's death, King George II destroyed the private record of the recipients' names that Roberts had kept.
The artist would appear to have taken Shackleton's portrait of the sitters as his starting point, itself inspired by Van Dyck's famous double portrait of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, with Sir Philip Mainwaring (private collection, UK), which in turn is based closely on Titian's George d'Armagnac with Guillaume Philandrie (private collection, UK). However, the artist has turned Shackleton's formal composition into a small informal portrait in the Devis tradition. The painting may have been commissioned by John Roberts, commemorating his association with the great man.
In the background of the composition is the Waynflete Tower at Esher Park on the banks of the River Mole, the seat bought by Pelham in 1729, and modified by William Kent in the 1730s, when a pair of wings and a portico were added to the tower as a means of integrating it into the Gothic mansion. The Tower was built between circa 1475 and 1480 by Bishop William Waynflete of Winchester as the gatehouse to Esher Palace. The estate was later occupied by Cardinal Wolsey, who extended the house in 1528, and by Richard Drake, cousin to Sir Francis Drake. Three Spanish admirals captured after the Armada were confined, in some splendour, in the Tower for five years. The Tower it is the only part of the house and estate that survives, the rest having been demolished by John Spicer, a wealthy stockbroker, in 1805.
The artist would appear to have taken Shackleton's portrait of the sitters as his starting point, itself inspired by Van Dyck's famous double portrait of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, with Sir Philip Mainwaring (private collection, UK), which in turn is based closely on Titian's George d'Armagnac with Guillaume Philandrie (private collection, UK). However, the artist has turned Shackleton's formal composition into a small informal portrait in the Devis tradition. The painting may have been commissioned by John Roberts, commemorating his association with the great man.
In the background of the composition is the Waynflete Tower at Esher Park on the banks of the River Mole, the seat bought by Pelham in 1729, and modified by William Kent in the 1730s, when a pair of wings and a portico were added to the tower as a means of integrating it into the Gothic mansion. The Tower was built between circa 1475 and 1480 by Bishop William Waynflete of Winchester as the gatehouse to Esher Palace. The estate was later occupied by Cardinal Wolsey, who extended the house in 1528, and by Richard Drake, cousin to Sir Francis Drake. Three Spanish admirals captured after the Armada were confined, in some splendour, in the Tower for five years. The Tower it is the only part of the house and estate that survives, the rest having been demolished by John Spicer, a wealthy stockbroker, in 1805.