Portrait of Sir Wyndham Knatchbull-Wyndham

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Sir Wyndham Knatchbull portrait

The portrait is very familiar to a whole host of former children in care at The Caldecott Community school which...More...
The portrait is very familiar to a whole host of former children in care at The Caldecott Community school which occupied for 50 years 'Mersham-le-Hatch' the ancestral Robert Adam built mansion of the Knatchbull family, UK where this elegant Batoni portrait was on unmissable display in its original dining room designed niche above an expansive decoratively carved marble fireplace. As one of those 'former familiar children' I note the painting has had a clean since certain detail wasn't nearly so apparent in my childhood when chancing to gaze up during every mealtime from 'my porridge' at the mannered Georgian stance of Sir Wyndham Knatchbull portrayed, I recall, against a much darkened backdrop of overlaid grime of enumerable decades.

Thanks!

Thank you for your memory of the painting! Indeed, our records state: "The portrait was painted in 1757, when the young...More...
Thank you for your memory of the painting! Indeed, our records state: "The portrait was painted in 1757, when the young Sir Wyndham was in Rome on his Grand Tour. After his return to England, Sir Wyndham commissioned the design and building of Mersham Hatch, Kent, where the painting hung over the fireplace in the dining room until its sale in 1994. See, Arthur T. Bolton, "Mersham Hatch, Kent, the seat of Lord Brabourne," Country Life, March 26, 1921, pp. 368-375, especially ills. p. 371 and 373."

Provenance

The portrait sitter was not married and had no heir, so upon his death, his property went to his uncle,...More...
The portrait sitter was not married and had no heir, so upon his death, his property went to his uncle, who was also known as John Brabourne, the producer of such Hollywood films as Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, Passage to India and Romeo and Juliet. This was work purchased by the museum with funding provided by the Ahmanson Foundation in 1994 from Simon C. Dickinson, Ltd. Prior to 1994, the work was held within the Knatchbull family.
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Portrait of Sir Wyndham Knatchbull-Wyndham

Italy, 1758-1759
Paintings
Oil on canvas
Canvas: 91 3/4 × 63 1/2 in. (233.05 × 161.29 cm) Frame: 107 × 79 × 4 1/2 in. (271.78 × 200.66 × 11.43 cm)
Gift of The Ahmanson Foundation (AC1994.128.1)
European Painting
Not currently on public view

Provenance

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The sitter, Sir Wyndham Knatchbull-Wyndham (1737–1763), 6th Bt., Mersham Hatch, Kent, bequeathed 1763 to his uncle; Sir Edward Knatchbull (d. 1789), 7th Bt., Mersham Hatch, Kent, bequeathed 1789 to his son; Sir Edward Knatchbull (d. 1819), 8th Bt., Mersham Hatch, Kent, bequeathed 1819 to his son; Sir Edward Knatchbull (d. 1849), 9th Bt., Mersham Hatch, Kent, bequeathed 1849 to his son; Sir Norton Joseph Knatchbull (d. 1868), 10th Bt., Mersham Hatch, Kent, bequeathed to his son; Sir Edward Knatchbull (d. 1871), 11th Bt., Mersham Hatch, Kent, bequeathed 1871 to his uncle; Sir Wyndham Knatchbull, 12th Bt., Mersham Hatch, Kent, by descent to; Sir Cecil Marcus Knatchbull-Hugessen (b. 1863), 4th Baron Brabourne,(1) 13th Bt., Mersham Hatch, Kent, bequeathed to; Michael Knatchbull, 5th Baron Brabourne, Mersham Hatch, Kent, bequeathed to his brother; Lt. Norton Cecil Michael Knatchbull (1922–1943),(2) 6th Baron Brabourne, Mersham Hatch, Kent, bequeathed 1943 to his brother; John Ulrich Knatchbull (1914–2005),(3) 7th Baron Brabourne, Mersham Hatch, Kent, sold 1994 through; [Simon C. Dickenson, Ltd, London and New York to]; LACMA

Footnotes

(1) The first Baron Brabourne was Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen (1829-1893), the sixth son of Sir Edward Knatchubll, 9th Bt., the eldest son of his marriage to his second wife, Fanny Catherine Knight (niece of Jane Austen). Following the death of his grandson at Neuve Chapelle in 1915, the title and properties reverted to his uncle Cecil Marcus Knatchbull-Hugessen. See Bolton 1921, p. 372.

(2) Lieutenant Knatchbull served in the Grenadier Guards during World War II. In 1943 he was wounded and captured by the Germans in Italy. He was later executed by his captors after attempting to escape. Unmarried, his titles passed to his younger brother.

(3) Married in 1946 to Patricia Mountbatten of Burma, the elder daughter and heiress of Viscount Mountbatten, later 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, he was also known as John Brabourne, the producer of such Hollywood films as Romeo and Juliet (1968), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Death on the Nile (1978), and Passage to India (1984).
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Bibliography

  • Bowron, Edgar Peters. Pompeo Batoni: a Complete Catalogue of His Paintings. Vol. 1. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016.
  • Lehmbeck, Leah, editor. Gifts of European Art from The Ahmanson Foundation. Vol. 1, Italian Painting and Sculpture. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2019.
  • Bowron, Edgar Peters. Pompeo Batoni: a Complete Catalogue of His Paintings. Vol. 1. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016.
  • Lehmbeck, Leah, editor. Gifts of European Art from The Ahmanson Foundation. Vol. 1, Italian Painting and Sculpture. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2019.
  • Redford, Bruce. Venice and the Grand Tour. London: Yale University Press, 1996.

  • Marandel, J. Patrice. Abecedario: Collecting and Recollecting. Los Angeles: Art Catalogues; LACMA, 2017.

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