This fluid oil sketch was made by Richard Brompton in preparation for his largest oil, the ambitious portrait of Henry and Juliana Dawkins with nine of their children, a painting on long-term loan to the National Trust at Penrhyn Castle. Brompton was an ambitious painter who trained in London and Rome, living and training with Anton Raphael Mengs, before receiving considerable patronage in London, completing portraits of the Royal family and leading politicians. Described by Jeremy Bentham as ‘harum-scarum ingenious sort of an artist’, Brompton travelled to St Petersburg to work for Catherine the Great, dying in Russia in 1783. This remarkable study was clearly made to aid Brompton in composing the complex group portrait which ended up including a menagerie of animals as well as eleven portraits and measured seventeen feet across. The oil sketch remained with the finished portrait until the Dawkins sale in 1913 it then belonged to the collector Frederick Wallop who lent it to Philip Sassoon’s pioneering exhibition of English conversation pieces held at 25 Park Lane in 1930.
Richard Brompton
The Family of Henry and Juliana Dawkins
Oil on canvas
128 x 203 inches; 3250 x 5155 mm
Private collection,
on loan to the National Trust, Penrhyn Castle
Richard Brompton began his training with the painter Benjamin Wilson but left for Italy in 1757 to travel to Rome. Living and working in the studio of Anton Raphael Mengs, Brompton acquired European polish and his works attracted the attention of a roster of notable British travellers, including John Fitzpatrick, 2nd Earl of Upper Ossory and John Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston. Whilst in Italy Brompton completed a celebrated conversation piece recording Edward, Duke of York on his Grand Tour surrounded by six other British travellers, a painting now in the Royal Collection. Brompton joined the embassy of Charles Compton, 7th Earl of Northampton to Venice. Brompton was elected accademico di merito at the Accademia di S. Luca in November 1765 and shortly afterwards is recorded back in London. In 1771 Brompton completed portraits of the Prince of Wales, the future George IV in the robes of the Garter and his brother, Prince Frederick in the robes of the order of the Bath, both were engraved by Joseph Saunders.
Richard Brompton
Edward, Duke of York with his friends in Venice 1764-65
Oil on canvas
48 x 63 inches; 1223 x 1610 mm
In 1773 Brompton was commissioned to clean and restore Anthony Van Dyck’s colossal group portrait of Philip Hebert, 4th Earl of Pembroke surrounded by his family at Wilton House near Salisbury. Brompton’s work on the most famous Van Dyck portrait in Britain evidently formed the creative impetus for the present composition. Commissioned by the stupendously wealthy Henry Dawkins, the colossal painting was designed for his house, Standlych, which was situated close to Salisbury. Brompton self-consciously took up the challenge of imitating Van Dyck’s grand machine, translating the formal seventeenth-century portrait to something more relaxed and domestic whilst retaining the mighty scale. The present boldly abbreviated oil sketch shows Brompton working on the design. Brompton includes a number of direct references to Van Dyck’s portrait, particularly the red costume of James Dawkins, Henry’s eldest son, which reflects the position and scarlet costume of Charles, Lord Herbert, the 4th Earl of Pembroke’s eldest son in the Wilton portrait. Both paintings are also set within a giant portico, articulated by out-sized columns. Following Van Dyck Brompton animates his composition with a positive menagerie of animals, the eldest sons stand with a whippet, whilst the younger children are shown with sheep, a parrot and lapdogs. The present sketch shows Brompton actively experimenting with certain compositional motifs, for example, he translates the deus ex machina of putti in clouds included in Van Dyck’s portrait into a giant parrot. This idea does not make it into the final painting. Colour studies such as this constituted an important, although little discussed, element of the working practice of many British artists at this date. We have a considerable body of similar abbreviated oil studies by Joshua Reynolds and William Hoare of Bath, although few are of the scale or ambition of the present painting.
Anthony van Dyck, 1599–1641
Portrait of Philip Herbert,4th Earl of Pembroke and his family, circa 1635
Oil on canvas
130 x 200 inches; 3300 x 5100 mm
Collection of The Earl of Pembroke & the Wilton House Trust
Brompton produced a series of successful portraits of contemporary political figures, including a portrait of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. It was the Pitt portrait which commended him to Catherine the Great and Brompton travelled to Russia with his wife in 1779. In Russia Brompton produced a series of official portraits of the Empress and her family, as well as working for Prince Potemkin and other members of the court. He died at Tsarkoye Selo in 1783.
