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Creator:
Jean-Baptiste van Loo, 1684–1745
Title:
The Rt. Honorable Stephen Poyntz, of Midgham, Berkshire [2016, YCBA]
Former Title(s):
The Rt. Hon. Stephen Poyntz of Midgeham, Berkshire (1685-1750) [1985, Sotheby’s sales catalogue]
Date:
1732
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
50 x 40 inches (127 x 101.6 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1985.21
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:
B1985.21FR
Subject Terms:
buttons (fasteners) | coat | costume | cuffs | embroidery | fabric | gold | hand | lace | male | portrait | Rococo | ruffles | stock | sword | velvet | waistcoat | wig
Associated People:
Poyntz, Stephen (bap. 1685, d. 1750), diplomatist and courtier
Access:
Not on view
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:1266
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Jean-Baptiste van Loo belonged to a dynasty of leading French painters and established himself as a portrait painter in London between 1737 and 1742. His polished rococo style made him popular with members of the elite like Stephen Poyntz, a diplomat who spent years in foreign courts before being appointed in 1730 as governor and steward of the household of the Duke of Cumberland, George II’s second eldest son and brother of the Prince of Wales. Poyntz remained a friend and confidant of the royal family and cultivated an image of himself as cosmopolitan and highly cultured. There is a marked contrast between Van Loo’s sparkling manner and the more prosaic style of his English rivals such as Thomas Hudson. Hudson’s xenophobic friend William Hogarth decried the Frenchman as a "Puffing Monopoliser [of] all the people in fashion," blaming him for the "distress" and "poverty" of many a native English portrait painter.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
Commissioned by Stephen Poyntz of Midgham, Berkshire, (1685-1750), the sitter, from Jean-Baptiste van Loo (1764-1745), the artist, in 1732; by inheritance to the sitter’s wife, Anna Maria Poyntz (née Mordaunt) (1712-1771) [a]; by inheritance to their daughter, (Margaret) Georgiana Spencer (née Poyntz), Countess Spencer (1737-1814); by inheritance to her son, George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834); by inheritance to his son, John Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl Spencer (1782-1845); by inheritance to his brother, Frederick Spencer, 4th Earl Spencer (1798-1857); by inheritance to his son, John Poyntz Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer (1835-1910); by inheritance to his brother, Charles Robert Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer (1857-1922); by inheritance to his son, Albert Edward John Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer (1892-1975); by inheritance to his son, Edward John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer (1924-1992); bought by the Yale Center for British Art, through John Baskett [b], Sotheby’s, London, July 10-17, 1985 (lot 34, ‘Portrait of the Rt. Hon. Stephen Poyntz of Midgeham, Berkshire (1685-1750)'), in “British Paintings - ‘The Property of the Rt. Hon. The Earl Spencer’” [c]

Citations:
[a] K. J. Garlick, Catalogue of the Pictures at Althorpe, Walpole Society, 1976, no. 652, p. 82
[b] John Baskett papers. Yale Center for British Art, Archives, John Baskett Ltd. stock book, 1967-1990, Box 1377, pp. 141-142 [https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/3080199]
[c] Sotheby’s, London, July 10-17, 1985. British Paintings

Catalogue of the pictures at Althorp House, in the county of Northampton : with occasional notices, biographical or historical, London, Accessed May 22, 2024, p. 109, no. 391, https://archive.org/details/catalogueofpictu00unse [Website]

Dr. Kenneth Garlick, A catalogue of pictures at Althorp, Volume of the Walpole Society, vol. 45, Walpole Society, Glasgow, 1974-1976, p. 84, no. 652, N12 .W35 A1 45 + Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

David H. Solkin, Art in Britain 1660-1815, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2015, pp. 125-26, fig, 129, N6766 S65 2015 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Sotheby's sale catalogue : British Paintings : 10 and 17 July 1985, Sotheby's, July 10 and 17, 1985, pp. 38-39, lot 34, Auction Catalogues (YCBA)

South Kensington Museum, Catalogue of the second special exhibition of national portraits commencing with the reign of William and Mary and ending with the year MDCCC, on loan to the South Kensington museum. May 1, 1867., London, 1867, p. 99, no. 423, N7598 S6 1867 (YCBA) [YCBA]


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