"Portrait Of A Gentleman, John Philip Packer, Blue Coat With Diamonds C.1686, Oil On Canvas"
Portrait of John Philip Packer (1655-1697) in a Blue Coat with Diamonds c.1686John Closterman (1665-1711)
This work formed part of the collection of family pictures and heirlooms of the Packer family at their magnificent moated family manor, Groombridge Place, Kent, one of the finest houses in England. The portrait was part of a notorious collection known as the “Packer portraits” and they looked down from the drawing room walls at Groombridge for almost 325 years until they were sold in 1992. The portrait is one of the finest works by John Closterman who at his best achieved something beyond the powers of any of his contemporaries working in England, including Kneller.
The lavish large-scale portrait depicts John Packer of Groombridge Place in Kent. The sitter has been depicted in with one arm resting on a plinth and the other akimbo resting on his hip. It is a gentlemanly pose that alludes confidence and self-assurance, essentially it is a ‘swagger portrait’. The lavish costume, the full-bottomed expensive wig, and the huge uncut diamonds exude a sense of wealth and privilege. This is a type of portrait that announces a (grand) arrival.
The history of Groombridge and the Packer’s begins with another John though, John Packer (1572-1649), who was a prominent lawyer and businessman, and by his association with Burghley, two successive Earls of Dorset, and of Buckingham profitable offices were conferred on him. In 1618 he acquired land at Groombridge from Richard Sackville, 3rd Earl of Dorset who was forced to sell due to gambling debts. John built the moated family manor, Groombridge Place and contributed heavily to the construction of nearby St John's Church. When he died in 1649, he left the Groombridge to his eldest son George. However, George was accidentally shot and passed away and the estate went to his next oldest son, Philip Packer (1618-1686).
In 1652 Philip married heiress Isabella Berkeley of Spetchley (1631-1664), the daughter of Sir Robert Berkeley, one of the oldest families in England. He was an English barrister, Paymaster of the King's Works, Fellow of the Royal Society, an architect, an astute businessman, courtier to Charles II, a founder of the Royal Society, and friend of John Evelyn and Sir Christopher Wren. The couple had two sons, one being John Packer (our sitter) and four daughters. After Isabella died Philip married Sarah Isgar (1626-1677) on 20 December 1666, by whom he already had three children with: James and William (both died in the Battle of the Boyne Ireland) and Philip (who emigrated to New Jersey, USA). On Christmas Eve 1686, whilst reading a book in his Secret Garden at Groombridge, Philip died. In his will, dated 20 May 1684, he bequeathed Groombridge to his son John, our sitter, and left cash legacies to his daughters and grandchildren. It is most likely that the portrait was commissioned to mark this important event as was customary at the time.
John married Barbara Morgan (1652-1712), daughter of Colonel John Morgan of Warminster, Wiltshire, in 1673, and a few years later the couple had three children: Isabella (born c.1674), Philip (1676-c.1709), and Anne (c.1676-1726). John followed in the footsteps of his father and became Usher of the Receipt of Exchequer, and Keeper of the Star Chamber. He died in 1697 at the age of 42 and was buried in the church at Groombridge. Groombridge passed to his son, Philip.
Philip died unmarried and Groombridge passed to his sisters as co-heiresses, however due to a disastrous 25-year Chancery suit, Groombridge was purchased by William Camfield (1754-81). He sold it to Robert Burges of Hall Place in 1792 and it descended to his nephew, the Rev John Saint. The Rev Saint's daughters, friends of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, never married and upon the death in 1919 of his last daughter, Elizabeth Saint, Groombridge Place and its contents, including the Packer portraits, was purchased by Henry Stanford Mountain (1919-47). At that time, the house had two live-in housemaids, a parlour maid, two kitchen maids, four gardeners and a resident carpenter. The butler lived in a cottage by the moat which had no running water, so he always bathed in the servants' quarters on the second floor - and caused the housemaids ‘endless trouble by insisting that the water be a specific temperature. They got their own back by setting off an alarm clock under the bath five minutes after he'd got in’.
Henry Stanford lived there until he died and his bachelor son, Stanford Walton, succeeded him. Stanford was remembered as 'very Victorian - he never came into the kitchen without knocking and asking permission' claimed a cook of the house of 34 years. Stanford lived there until his death in 1947 before the house passed to his niece, Rosemary Newton. After she died in 2000, over a year later, Groombridge Place continued as though the family were still in residence. Though nobody was there to enjoy it, the cook still made a daily cake on the kitchen table and there was tea, but no one to order it, in a room scarcely changed since Victorian times with period furniture and worn wicker baskets hanging from hooks, Mrs Beeton's Household Management on the shelf below, from the high ceiling, great bars wait for cured hams. Simple flowers were on the dining-room table where no one dined; two gardeners weeded the immaculate 'pleasure garden' that no one walked through. Reminiscing, the cook exclaimed 'Mr Mountain liked good, old-fashioned country-house cookery, grouse and salmon and so forth,' and 'I would go to the library every day for orders. Breakfast, egg and bacon, was at 9am on the dot; dinner at 7.30. Tea - cucumber sandwiches and cakes - at 4pm’. The house may appear familiar to some as it is the home of the Bennet family in the 2005 movie “Pride and Prejudice” with Keira Knightley. The house is now a private home.
Further Groombridge History
Before the Packer’s acquired the estate it had a long history, as in the time of Edward I, the estate belonged to the powerful Cobham family, who alienated it to the Clinton’s, and then it was sold to Thomas Waller, a rich Kentish esquire, c.1400. His grandson, Richard, was a renowned soldier who distinguished himself in the war of Henry V by capturing Charles, Duke of Orleans, General of the French Army, at the Battle at Agincourt and holding him hostage at Groombridge for more than twenty years. Charles’ younger brother Jean, Count of Angouleme, was already held as hostage at Groombridge. Traces of this connection can be seen in many places at Groombridge with the fleur-de-lys of France on the main gates by the bridge approach and on a sixteenth century fireback and firedogs. The Wallers held Groombridge Place for over two centuries until it was sold in 1604, to Sir Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset the Lord Treasurer of England, and again in 1618 to John Packer.
John Closterman was born in Westphalia in 1660. He briefly worked in Paris under François de Troy (1679–1752) before coming to England in around 1681, following the death of court painter Sir Peter Lely. Soon after his arrival Closterman was employed by the King’s Principal Painter, John Riley (1646-1691) as a drapery painter, although the existence of signed works by both artists during the 1680s suggests they also worked independently. After the latter’s death Closterman established an independent portrait practice and the demand for his work soared, pushing him further into the upper echelons of society, and by the late 1690s he appears to have enjoyed a position amongst the most distinguished literary and artistic circles and was one of the leading society portrait painters in Britain, alongside Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646–1723) and Michael Dahl (1659–1743), and also practiced as an art dealer.
His distinguished patrons included the Duke and Duchess of Somerset and the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough (although the former identification of the sitter in this work as John, Duke of Marlborough is incorrect). Closterman’s work is characterised by a degree of baroque vigour absent from the work of his British contemporaries: confident and ambitious poses, dramatic lighting and lively drapery, often with dashes of brilliant colour.
By November 1698 Closterman was in Spain where he was patronised by the Spanish court and painted full-length portraits of Carlos II and Maria Ana of Neuberg. As is frequently seen throughout the history of travelling artists, Closterman, whilst looking for patronage, also acted as an agent for wealthy English collectors and did much to encourage the collecting of Old Master drawings in England. This work, dated c.1686 on grounds of style, the sitter’s age and costume, was painted before Closterman embarked on his influential tour abroad, to Madrid and Rome. The trip was partly sponsored by the 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, for whom Closterman completed an important group of family portraits. Closterman died in May 1711, not long after being robbed of his valuables by a devious mistress, an event which supposedly drove him into madness.
His work is found in most pubic collections in Britain and in many private collections – seen on the walls in many British country houses, in the possession of descendants of the original sitters.
The work is held in its original carved and gilded Lely panel frame.
Literature:
Country Life, Vol II, Issue 39, 2nd Oct 1897
Country Life, Vol XII, Issue 306, 15th Nov 1902
Country Life, Vol XII, Issue 307, 22nd Nov 1902
Country Life, Vol XIV, Issue 350, 19th Sep 1903
Provenance:
The sitter at Groombridge Place, Kent, and by descent;
Henry Stanford Mountain, by 1919 (who purchased Groombridge along with its contents and paintings), and by descent;
Sotheby’s sale (2592) London, 15-16 Sept, 1992 “Groombridge Place”;
Dr John A. Packer, Edinburgh
Measurements:
Height 145cm, Width 123cm framed (Height 57”, Width 48.5” framed)
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