European

Gainsborough Dupont

England 1754-1797
Portrait of Lord Mountstuart 25.0081

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The sitter in this half-length portrait is believed to be John, Viscount Mount Stuart (1744-1814) the son of John Stuart, the 3rd Earl of Bute, confidant of and mentor to George III. Viscount Mount Stuart, who succeeded to the earldom upon the death of his father in 1792, held the post of envoy to Turin from 1779 to 1783, when he became ambassador to Spain. It is likely that this painting was commissioned as an official portrait upon that appointment. The studio system for accomplished portraitists required large numbers of apprentices, assistants, and pupils in the 18th century. These persons were locked into a rigid hierarchy that managed everything from drapery painting to running errands. Assistants also made copies of portraits, a quite acceptable practice in the 18th and 19th centuries when multiple residences and the use of portraits as gifts and marks of favor made such copies a necessity. Thomas Gainsborough's most trusted and talented assistant was his nephew, Gainsborough Dupont, who upon his uncle's death in 1788 completed, in his uncle's style, many paintings that had been left unfinished. Known primarily as a portraitist, and as a talented mezzotint engraver of Gainsborough's paintings, Dupont first started sending works to the Royal Academy's exhibitions in 1790. These consisted of conversation pieces (paintings of groups of people in their customary surroundings), landscapes, and numerous portraits.

 

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