LOUIS-GABRIEL BLANCHET | Portrait of a Gentleman, probably Henry Arundell, 8th Baron Arundell of Wardour (1740–1808), three-quarter length, seated

Possibly painted for Henry Arundell, 8th Baron Arundell of Wardour (1740–1808);

Thence by descent within the family of the Lords Arundell of Wardour;

Anonymous sale, Monaco, Sotheby’s, 17 June 1988, lot 887, where acquired by the present owner.

Henry Arundell, 8th Baron Arundell of Wardour (1740–1808) was the son of Henry, 7th Baron Arundell of Wardour (1717–56), and is documented as being in Rome in 1760, and as such would have been roughly twenty years old when this portrait was painted. He was notoriously profligate and undertook an extensive redevelopment project of Wardour Castle, the family seat, saddling his heirs with considerable debts upon his death, which resulted in much of the family estate being sold. He was an enthusiastic collector of art and had an elegant full-length portrait of himself painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, now held at the Dayton Art Institute, Ohio.(1)

1 Inv. no. 1969.52; see, D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds, A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, New Haven and London 2000, p. 359, cat. no. 816, reproduced.