Thomas Gainsborough R.A. 1727 - 1788

Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 5th Bt., (1772-1840);

by descent to the present owner

The following four drawings by Thomas Gainsborough have been part of the Williams-Wynn collection since they were purchased in the late eighteenth century. Two of them (lots 2 and 3) are known to have been bought at auction in 1794 from the collection of the surgeon, John Hunter.

Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th Bt. (1749-1789) was one of the most celebrated patrons of the arts of his age. On his return from the Grand Tour in 1769, he employed Richard Wilson to paint in North Wales near the family seat at Wynnstay and took drawing lessons from Paul Sandby with whom he travelled through North Wales in 1771. In 1772, he bought a large town house on St. James's Square from Lord Bathurst and employed Robert and James Adam to decorate it. He was also an important patron of the most prominent artist of the age, Sir Joshua Reynolds, the first President of the Royal Academy. A Portrait of his wife Charlotte, with her three Children was sold in these Rooms on 9th June 1998, lot 8 (now in the National Gallery of Wales, Cardiff).

One of the children painted by Reynolds was the eldest son and heir Watkin (1772-1840) who inherited the Baronetcy on the early death of his father in 1789. Interestingly it was therefore through him and not his father that at least two of the present drawings entered the collection in 1794. In contrast to his father, he was keen to pursue a military career and in 1794 he raised a corps of yeomen, known as the Ancient British Light Dragoons, for service in Ireland. They saw fierce action there in 1798 and were nicknamed `The Bloody Britons' and `Sir Watkins lambs.' He also used new agricultural methods on his land and Wynnstay became the centre of the North Wales Agricultural Society. In 1817 he married Lady Henrietta Clive, daughter of Edward, Earl of Powis.

This remarkably fluent drawing dates from the late 1770s. It is predominantly executed in grey washes with pen and ink used merely to give shape to the composition. A similar work of a landscape with horse and cart is in the collection of Earl Spencer at Althorp (John Hayes, op. cit., no.462).