John Hoppner, R.A.

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 25 June 1924, lot 73;

Yates G. Smith and Hal. H. Smith, Jr.;

By whom gifted to the Detroit Institute of Arts, 1960;

By whom deacessioned, 1998;

Thereafter acquired by the present owner. 

W. McKay and W. Roberts, John Hoppner, R.A., London 1909, pp. 175-176 (as known only from an engraving);

The Detroit Institute of Arts, A Checklist of Paintings, Detroit 1965, p. 54.  

Charles Moss was an esteemed Anglican clergyman born in 1711 in Postwick, England and later educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. In addition to serving as the Chaplain to the King (1758-1766), Moss held many clerical positions, including Archdeacon of Colchester (1749-1766), Bishop of Saint David's (1766-1774) and Bishop of Bath and Wales (1774-1802).  He died in 1802 at the age of 90.  

In this portrait, Hoppner has recorded Moss as an elderly man with his cane resting between his legs and against his chest and his spectacles held in his right hand. He is shown in his clerical robes, seated in a red chair set against a crimson curtain.  

This portrait by Hoppner was engraved by Sir William Reynolds in 1801.  Another portrait of Charles Moss attributed to Hoppner is today in the collection of the Bishop's Palace & Gardens in Wells.