JOSEPH WRIGHT OF DERBY, A.R.A. | Portrait of Major Richard Bayly (d. 1764)

B. Nicholson, Joseph Wright of Derby. Painter of Light, New York and London 1968, vol. I, p. 178.  

The painting has been relined, the paint surface is clean, and the varnish is clear and even. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals virtually no retouching, save for a small restoration just to the right of the sitter’s nose. The painting is in overall very good condition.
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An Irishman, the sitter was commissioned as an ensign in the 35^th Regiment of Foot in 1745, rising to Major in a newly raised Scottish regiment, the 108^th Foot in 1761, with which he served until 1763 when it was disbanded at the end of the Seven Years War. He is depicted here wearing the uniform of the 44^th Regiment of Foot, in which he served between 1750 and 1761. The 44^th Foot, under the command of Colonel Sir Peter Halkett (1695–1755), was sent to North America at the outbreak of the French and Indian War and saw service as part of General Braddock’s army in the Ohio Valley. Bayly was named in regimental orders on 17 June 1755 and saw action at the Battle of Monongahela (also known as The Battle of the Wilderness) on 9 July, where he was one of the few officers not to be wounded from the regiment, which lost its Colonel in the fight. The regiment remained in America for the rest of the war and went on to fight at the Battle of Carillion in July 1758 and the Battle of Fort Niagara in July 1759. He died on half pay on 8 November 1764. Wright’s account book lists a ‘Capt. Bailey, £6. 6s’ among sitters at Derby circa 1760. Allowing for the vagaries of the spelling of surnames in the 18^th century it seems highly likely that this is the portrait to which the artist refers.¹ Bayly held the rank of Captain in the 44^th Foot from 1757 and, given that he was ‘raised for rank’ in the 108^th in 1761, must have left his regiment in America and returned to Britain to raise troops at around this time.

We are grateful to Dr. Brian Allen for endorsing the attribution on the basis of a photograph and suggesting a date of circa 1760. We are also grateful to Dr. Andrew Cormack for his assistance with the cataloguing of this lot.

1 See Literature for Nicholson’s transcription of Wright’s account book.