Portrait Of Prince Ernest Augustus (1771-1851), Circle Of Thomas Gainsborough Ra (1727 - 1788)

Circle of Thomas Gainsborough RA (1727 - 1788)

Title: Portrait of Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and King of Hanover (1771-1851) as a Young Boy

Period: Circa 1775-1780

Medium: Oil on canvas

Provenance: Collection of Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1771-1851), with his ownership stamp to verso; Sotheby's, Property from the Royal House of Hanover, Munich, 5-15 October 2005, lot 5079

On the front of what we believe to be the original 18th century frame is a slightly later plaque reading “Georg Prinz v. Cumberland”

The overall size with the frame is 71cm x 63cm x 9cm and the painting measured at sight is 53 x 45.6 cm.

A beautiful half-length portrait of a young boy with blond hair, traditionally identified as Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1771-1851). He is depicted half-length, turned to the left, wearing a white shirt decorated with pearls around the sleeves and chest, a small sprig of forget me nots to the centre of the neckline, a wide blue sash around his waist.

Oil on canvas, held in a gilded composition frame with spandrels and oval aperture, stencil in black to verso of the frame, with a monogram E.A. and coronet and the number M202, additionally stamped in black to verso EAPC, and with an early printed and handwritten label for the picture restorer Hermann Ritschl, Vienna with stock number 5233.

Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, was the fifth son of George III of England. He was born on June 5, 1771, in Kew, Surrey, England, and died on November 18, 1851, in Herrenhausen, Hanover, Germany.

Ernest Augustus served in the English and Hanoverian armies during the war with France. He was created Duke of Cumberland in 1799. He entered the House of Lords as an ardent Tory who opposed Catholic emancipation and the Reform Act. His repressive politics and private influence over the Prince Regent, made the Duke the subject of much popular resentment.

In 1810, amid rumours of incest and the murder of his valet, he suffered an assassination attempt. When William IV died in 1837, Cumberland succeeded as Ernest I of Hanover under Salic law which excluded Queen Victoria as a woman.

Thomas Gainsborough was one of the leading portraitists of late 18th-century England and a favourite painter of King George III and Queen Charlotte. Gainsborough’s portraits were highly lucrative for him and well-liked, and it is believed that Queen Charlotte broke down in public when he unveiled his paintings of her.

The present work shows compositional and stylistic similarities to portraits of young children by Gainsborough. Gainsborough did in fact paint a portrait of Prince Ernest as a slightly older boy, which is in the Royal Collection. The painting formed part of a series of fifteen portraits probably commissioned by Queen Charlotte of the royal family. They were painted at Windsor in September and October 1782.

On 30 October the Morning Herald reported that Gainsborough “has just completed his painting of the whole Royal Family, at Windsor... all of which are spoken of as highly-finished characteristic portraits of the illustrious personages who sat to him”. All the portraits were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1783.

Condition report: In excellent restored and lined condition. There is craquelure commensurate with the painting’s age – there is no paint loss and no evidence of any infill repairs. The paint surface is stable and even and the tones are beautiful in real life and still very good.

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