Henry Wyatt (1794-1840) Portrait of Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (1770-1828)

Henry Wyatt (1794-1840)

Portrait of Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2^nd Earl of Liverpool (1770-1828); British Prime Minister

Oil on millboard in a period frame

Provenance: Gifted by Lord Liverpool to his cousin Mordaunt Ricketts and thence by descent (inscribed verso).

Commissioned by the sitter from Henry Wyatt and gifted to his cousin Mordaunt Ricketts (1786–1862) in 1827 this painting derives from Sir Thomas Lawrence’s portrait of Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool in the Royal Collection and which now hangs in the Waterloo Chamber of Windsor Castle. 

A contemporary inscription on the reverse explains that it was gifted by the sitter – who was then serving as Prime Minister – to his cousin Mordaunt Ricketts an envoy of the East India Company at Lucknow, Oudh, India. The inscription also states that the portrait was produced by Henry Wyatt, a pupil of Lawrence who was presumably sought out for the task.

This portrait exhibits many qualities expected from a work by Henry Wyatt. A pupil of Sir Thomas Lawrence, he continued his master’s style for another decade after the great man’s death. Many of his works remained quite true to Lawrence, combining a dashing brilliance of colour with the best displaying a vigorously expressed freedom of brushwork. He joined Lawrence in 1815 being engaged largely in producing quality studio copies and after a year was earning a substantial salary of £300 which is testimony to his exceptional abilities as Lawrence was known as an uncompromising taskmaster. It is unsurprising that Lord Liverpool turned to him to produce this version of his famous portrait.