Francis William Wilkin – Portrait of the Hon. Edwin Lascelles (1799-1865)

Francis William Wilkin

Portrait of the Hon. Edwin Lascelles (1799-1865)

Chalk on paper laid on canvas; held in original giltwood frame

Provenance: By family descent

Dimensions refer to outer framed size.

Lascelles was the 4th son of Henry Lascelles, 2nd Earl of Harewood and Henrietta Sebright, daughter of Lt. General Sir John Sebright, 6^th Bt. He grew up at Harewood House in Yorkshire and graduated in law, 1826, from All Souls College, Oxford, being called to the Bar at the Inner Temple the same year. He was returned MP for Ripon in January 1846, and re-elected, 1852 and retired, 1857.

A contemporary Yorkshire journal at the time of his death described him as ‘a generous, kind-hearted man; and in manly figure and deportment, and in general bearing to all classes, he appeared the type of an English country gentleman. In the circle in which he moved, and in the public offices which he filled, his death left a marked vacancy’. And further, concerning his responsibilities as a magistrate, ‘No man perhaps ever discharged his duties…with more clearness of judgment united with suavity of conduct…his legal knowledge was with advantage brought to bear upon many judicial cases…’

It is as a young barrister that the artist Francis William Wilkin has chosen to depict Lascelles, almost certainly in 1826 when he graduated and was called to the Bar. As with so many of his chalk portraits, he imbues the sitter with a natural dashing air of confidence. Captured in his subfusc attire, Wilkin has taken this significant element of the composition and, quite literally, with a lightness of touch drawn emphasis to the stylish aspect of this most formal dress. In doing so Lascelles appears both urbane and debonair, with a hint of a suave gravity of purpose to his chosen profession.