William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland
China, Guangzhou/ Canton, produced for the English market, late 18th / early 19th C.
Glass panel painted on reverse in transparent pigments. A restored crack to the lower left corner, a small retouched area in the centre of the chest. In a later gilded softwood frame, H 41, W 30.7 cm.
The portrait shows a detail of the painting by the English artist John Wootton (c. 1686 - 1764), dated 1744. It was painted in collaboration with the portraitist Thomas Hudson (1701 - 1779), who only executed the head. It depicts William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1721 - 1765) at the Battle of Dettingen, seated on his brown horse, wearing the red uniform of the First Guards with the ribbon and star of the Order of the Garter. The painting was commissioned by Frederick, Prince of Wales, and hung in Leicester House, along with Wootton's great battle scenes from Marlborough's campaigns. Today it belongs to the Royal Collection Trust, inv. no. RCIN 407465.
The National Portrait Gallery houses the mezzotint by John Faber Jr. after the portrait of the Duke by Thomas Hudson (inv. no. NPG D7943), which served as the model for this reverse glass painting.
The Augsburg engraver Johann Christian Leopold (1699 - 1755) produced a German variant of Faber's print since the Duke of Cumberland, although born in London and a member of the British royal house, had parents of German descent. His father was George II. August, Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg, his mother Caroline Princess of Ansbach-Brandenburg.
This lot includes the original coloured print by Leopold.
Provenance
Art market, Graz.
Literature
Illus. in Steiner, Hinterglas und Kupferstich. Hinterglasgemälde und ihre Vorlagen 1550 - 1850, Munich 2004, p. 156 f.
A further example in Ritz, Hinterglasmalerei – Geschichte, Erscheinung, Technik, Munich 1975, illus. 16.
Exhibitions
2005 - 2006 "Eleganz in Glanz", Barockmuseum Salzburg.
2008 Schaezlerpalais der Kunstsammlungen und Museen Augsburg.