Attributed by Hugh Belsey to Sir Thomas Lawrence PRA (1769 -...

Estimate

£8,000 - £12,000

Attributed by Hugh Belsey to Sir Thomas Lawrence PRA (1769 - 1830): a portrait of John Henry Bedford Smith (1788-1814) oil on mahogany board, 46 x 41cm, painted c1793, gilt framed with title plate that reads: John Henry Bedford Smith, 4th son of George Smith of Burnhall, Durham and Piercefield, Mon (Monmouthshire) and Juliet, his wife. Captain 6th Dragoon Guards Born 3rd January 1788. Died 19th March 1814 by Sir Thomas Lawrence. The attribution has been put forward by Hugh Belsey MBE. Retouched and sealed. The subject of this painting, John Henry Bedford Smith, was born at Piercefield in Monmouthshire on 3 January 1788. After attending Oriel College, Oxford he joined the 6th Regiment of the Dragoon Guards but died aged just 26 years at his brother, George Thomas Smith's residence, Pendrffyrn, in Carnarvonshire on 19 March 1814. His father was George Smith, an ambitious property speculator originating from Burn Hall, County Durham. His mother, Juliet Mott, had been the subject of a painting by Sir Thomas Gainsborough, in 1766. The painting of Miss Juliet Mott, then aged 12 years, was painted by Gainsborough and given to the child's parents out of gratitude for the kindness shown to him at their house during an illness. Juliet Mott was the only surviving child and heiress of Richard Mott, an attorney of Marlesford Hall in Suffolk. Juliet went on to marry in 1774. Juliet Mott married George Smith of Burn Hall in Durham. A speculative man, he founded a bank in Monmouthshire and had a mansion built there in fashionable Piercefield Park again employing the famed architect John Soane. When the war in France broke out in 1793 his bank collapsed and he was bankrupted. His daughter, the celebrated linguist and translator Elizabeth Smith, wrote that he sold every last item from the house and its library to honour his debts. Stricken by financial problems, the family went to live with George Smith's cousin, Elizabeth Bedford and her husband a prominent Lincoln's Inn barrister named John Claxton Esquire at his country seat at Shirley, Surrey. The children were all very young. As well as Bedford as he was known there was 18 year old George Thomas, and the teenage girls Christian and Elizabeth who was to become a renowned scholar. Then there was 9 year old Juliet and a baby Richard scarcely a year old. Finally there was the son who was to restore the family fortunes: 7 year old Charles Felix Smith later Lieutenant General Sir Charles KCB, Colonel – Commandant of the Royal Engineers with the Duke of Wellington during the Peninsular Wars and later campaigns. Claxton was a friend of William Johnson Temple and Dr Johnson's biographer, James Boswell who Lawrence also sketched. He was Godfather to John Henry Bedford Smith and in his will left him all his property in Surrey and an annuity of £220 per year, worth around £20,000 today. No other members of the Smith family were mentioned. Clearly Claxton was very fond of the young man. Lawrence's studios were a short walk from Claxton's chambers in Lincoln's Inn. The Smith family were staying within a short carriage ride from London when the portrait was likely painted in 1793 and it may well be that Claxton had something to do with its creation. By May 1794 John Henry Bedford Smith's father had secured a commission in the 22nd Regiment Light Dragoons, probably purchased by Claxton and the family moved to Ireland, By 1788 Lawrence had moved from Bath to London championed by his sister Elizabeth's friend Henrietta Maria Bowdler and his other Blue Stocking neighbours in Bath as well as the actress Sarah Siddons who was the toast of Drury Lane and whose portrait Lawrence had recently produced to great acclaim. I do not believe he ever went to Ireland and when his friend and correspondent Joseph Farington mentioned that he had been to see Piercefield in his letters, Lawrence did not respond, so I believe he could not have painted young Bedford at either place. The Smith's last home and the resting place of both parents and his sister, Elizabeth Smith, was Tent Lodge in Coniston in the Lake District which Lawrence did not visit. This may suggest that the portrait of Bedford is that of a 5 year old boy painted in London or Shirley around 1793. At some point after the death of her mother in Coniston in 1838 the painting of John Henry Bedford Smith, came into the possession of his sister, also Juliet Smith of Musbury, Devon. She never married and in her will dated 1849 is a bequest: I give unto Mrs Henry the wife of the said William Charles Henry my portrait of her uncle Bedford Smith. The Mrs Henry in question was Margaret Allan the daughter of the acclaimed Scottish Geologist and Banker Thomas Allan and Christian Smith his wife born 1777 died Turin, Italy in 1817, the sister of the testator. The portrait came into the possession of the Henry family. At some point both this painting and that of John Henry Bedford Smith's mother hung together in the Henry's collection though how she came to be in the possession of the Henrys is unknown. At some time the Juliet Mott Gainsborough was sold and a copy made which to this day hangs in the dining room of a Henry family member whereas that of her tragically short lived son Bedford Smith is no longer alongside it. Not available for in-house P&P