George Romney

Lt.-Col., Sir Edmund Currey (1787-1842), Comptroller of H.R.H. The Duke of Gloucester's Household, and one of the Executors of the Duke;

Thence by descent to his son, Elliott Scarlett Currey, Esq. (b. 1840), Fachlwyd Hall, Ruthin;

By whom sold, London, Sotheby's, 8 December 1926, lot 92 (as John Hoppner, R.A.);

There acquired by Sulley;

From whom acquired by John Levy;

With Agnew;

Mrs. E. Hartford, by March 1928;

With Newhouse;

Mr. and Mrs. Kay Kimbell, by October 1956;

Kimbell Art Foundation, Fort Worth, Texas (inv. no. ACF56.5);

By whom sold ("The Property of the Kimbell Art Foundation, Fort Worth, Texas"), New York, Sotheby’s, 16-17 June 1976, lot 11 (as John Hoppner, R.A.);

Where acquired by Wildenstein;

From whom acquired by a private collection, San Francisco;

By whom bequested to the Filoli Gardens and Museum.

W. McKay and W. Roberts, John Hoppner, R.A., London 1909, p. 98 (as John Hoppner);

A. Kidson, George Romney: A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings, New Haven and London 2015, vol. I, p. 239, cat. no. 507a, reproduced (from images, as possibly by Keeling, but not autograph as Romney, an idea that Kidson has subsequently revised after firsthand inspection).

Prince William Frederick, 2nd Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, was the great-grandson of King George II and grandson of Frederick, Prince of Wales. He was born in 1776 to William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, and Maria Walpole. In 1816, he married Princess Mary, daughter of his uncle, King George III. 

From 1790-1791, a young William Frederick sat for George Romney eleven times, nearly coinciding with his graduation from Trinity College Cambridge in 1790. The present portrait showing the prince to his knees and in front of a simplified background may have been the product of the first six sittings of the young prince with Romney from 13-20 July 1790. Romney may have then used this portrait as the basis for his full-length portrait of the prince attired in a nobleman’s undergraduate gown, today in the collection of Trinity College Cambridge, that he would finish after five more sittings of the prince in the spring of 1791.¹ Indeed, the present canvas may be the portrait that Romney received £30 for on top of the £100 for the more complete, full-length version.  

The earliest recorded owner of this portrait was Lieutenant Colonel Sir Edmund Currey (1787-1842), who was appointed in 1805 as Secretary and Comptroller to the household of His Royal Highness, The Duke of Gloucester, and also served as one of the Duke’s executors. The portrait descended to his son, Elliott S. Currey, who sold the painting in 1926 as by John Hoppner, an erroneous attribution that stayed with the work for much of the 20^th century, including when it was sold by the Kimbell Art Museum in 1976. 

In his George Romney catalogue raisonné, Alex Kidson published this painting from a photograph as not appearing to be autograph. Upon recent inspection of the original firsthand, Kidson has revised his opinion and now believes this to be an autograph version by George Romney.   

We are grateful to Alex Kidson for his assistance in the cataloguing of the present lot.  

1. The second set of sittings occurred on 13, 20, 27 February, as well as 24 April and 1 May 1791.