Portrait of a Gentleman, Probably Charles Dering

Batoni, Pompeo (Italian painter and draftsman, 1708-1787)

Portrait of a Gentleman, Probably Charles Dering

Date

1994-07-13

Authors

Batoni, Pompeo (Italian painter and draftsman, 1708-1787)

Citation

Sotheby's, British Pictures 1500-1850, Wed 13 July 1994, p 61, no 62

Description

'The sitter in this painting has been traditionally identified as Charles Dering, the son of Sir Edward Dering, 5th Bt., M.P. for Kent, and his second wife, Mary, widow of Henry Mompesson, and daughter of Captain Charles Fotherby, R.N. of Barham. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Farnaby Bt. in 1770. The date of his birth is unknown, but his parents married in 1735, and it is therefore likely that he was born during the late 1730s, and could have been travelling in Italy during the 1760s, when this portrait was painted. His elder half-brother, Edward (from Sir Edward Dering's first marriage) was painted twice by Batoni in Rome in 1758-9. The sitter is dressed in the English fashion, with a red silk coat and waistcoat, a lace jabot and a 'solitaire', formed from ends of the black ribbon used to tie a bag wig, which was tucked into the front of the shirt. Dr. Edgar Peters Brown confirmed that the portrait was by Pompeo Batoni and dates it to the middle 1760s. The painting can be compared to his portrait of Philip Metcalfe of 1766-7, in the National Gallery, London.' (Sotheby's, 60)