Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury 1727-1788 London) Portrait of William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shel...

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury 1727-1788 London) Portrait of William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne and 1st Marquess of Lansdowne oil on canvas 75.8 x 63.1cm (29 13/16 x 24 13/16in). Footnotes: Provenance: Purchased by Henry Farrer, FSA (1798-1866) His posthumous sale, Christie's, London, 15 June 1866, lot 63 (as Gainsborough Dupont, bt. Hack for £1 13s) Collection of Nicolas van Slochen His trustee's sale, Sotheby's, London, 23 May, 1962, lot 167 (bt. H. Buckley for £320) With Knoedler & Co., London, 1966 With Old Hall Gallery Ltd., Rye, Sussex, England Their Sale, Christie's, London, 23 November, 1973, lot 38, where purchased post sale by With Oscar and Peter Johnson Ltd., London Private Collection, California, USA, by whom offered Sale, Bonhams, New York, 8 May 2013, lot 35, where purchased by With Historical Portraits Ltd., London, where acquired by the present owner Literature: E. Waterhouse, Gainsborough , London, 1958, p. 77, no. 428 H. Belsey, Thomas Gainsborough The Portraits, Fancy Pictures and Copies after Old Masters , New Haven and London, vol. II, cat. no. 564, p.533, ill. Exhibited: Previously on loan to the House of Commons where it hung in the Speaker's Corridor until recently (see photograph). William Petty (1737-1805), 2nd Earl of Shelburne and 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, was a British statesman and Whig prime minister from July 1782 to April 1783 during the reign of George III. His tenure as prime minister coincided with the final months of the American War of Independence and he is considered by some to have been instrumental in securing peace with America and negotiating the borders which now define the country. However, the Whigs refused to serve under him and combined with Lord North to defeat him the following year. Petty was acquainted with Gainsborough and had met him at least a decade before this painting was executed (recorded in a letter to a Mr. William Jackson of Exeter). The artist painted two versions of this portrait in or around 1787 with one supposedly destined to be a present for King Louis XVI of France. The present and second example has been known for many years from a stipple engraving executed by Bartolozzi in 1787. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com