Attributed to Barthelemy du Pan (Ghent 1712-1763)Portrait of Frederick, Prince of Wales, half-length, in a mauve coat with the sash of the Order of the Garter and an ermine-lined robe
oil on canvas
75.2 x 63.5cm (29 5/8 x 25in).
in a carved gilt wood frame with the Prince of Wales feathers注脚Provenance
Said to have been commissioned by the Prince of Wales and presented to the Rt. Hon. George Lee (1700-1758)
Thence by family descent at Hartwell House until offered by the Trustees of Mrs Benedict Eyre, Hartwell House
Sale, Sotheby's, London, 26 April 1938, lot 57 (as Allan Ramsay), where acquired by
The Hon. Mrs Nellie Ionides (1883 - 1962), by whose executors offered
Sale, Sotheby's, London, 19 May 1963, lot 139 (as A. Ramsay)

Literature
A. Graves and W. Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, PRA, London, 1899, vol. III, p. 1019

According to tradition this historically significant portrait of Frederick, Prince of Wales was presented to his great friend, Sir George Lee (see: Graves and Cronin, ibid p. 1019). This gift is likely to have been made circa 1747-51, when Sir George had joined the Prince of Wales's new opposition faction, the so-called Leicester House Party, and when the Prince was visiting Hartwell. If this is correct this portrait is the prime work from which two further well-known portraits of the Prince are derived: the portrait by Jean-Etienne Liotard in the Royal Collection and the portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, which was also in the Hartwell House collection but is now untraced. Both of these portraits seem to have been painted after Prince Frederick's death in 1751 and Reynolds and his studio seem likely to have painted a faithful copy of the present portrait with only minor variations in the gilt frogging on the Garter star, when he was a guest at Hartwell House circa 1760 (see: D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds: A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, 2000, no. 689, fig. 453).

Du Pan was born in Geneva in August 1712. After studying in Paris and Rome he had moved to England by 1743. His most important commission was for Frederick Prince of Wales: the large, informal conversation group portrait of the children of Frederick in the Royal Collection, signed and dated 1746. In October 1745 du Pan submitted a bill for £80 for 'Two pictures of His Royal Highness' at £40 each which could be associated with the present work (see: Oliver Millar, The Tudor, Stuart and Earl Georgian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, 1963, Text Volume, p. 188). It is likely that an additional pair of portraits of the Prince and his wife, now in the Ulster Museum of Art, are also by du Pan (Oliver Millar, Ibid). This flurry of activity for the Prince in the late 1740s fits well with the tradition of the gift to George Lee at Hartwell circa 1747.

Frederick, Prince of Wales was the eldest, but estranged, son of King George II and Caroline of Ansbach. He predeceased his father and the succession passed to his son, who became King George III. Frederick is recognised today as an important patron of the arts. A prolific collector, he was also a keen musician: a portrait by Philip Mercier, now in the National Portrait Gallery, depicts him playing the cello in the company of his sisters; while he came to support the Opera of the Nobility in Lincoln's Inn Fields which rivalled the King's Theatre in Haymarket, which was supported by his father. He was also one of the earliest cricket enthusiasts: indeed, shortly before his death in 1751 Frederick was struck by an errant fielding throw, which was at the time blamed for having burst an abscess. However, the true cause of death was, more prosaically, likely to have been pneumonia.