caption

after Godfrey Kneller, Unknown Man

Photo courtesy of Tom St Aubyn (All rights reserved)

Details

Country House
Raynham Hall
Title(s)
Unknown Man
Date
? c.1709
Location
The King's Bedroom
Medium and support
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Overall height: 74 cm, Overall width: 61.5 cm
Artist
after Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723)
Catalogue Number
RN85

Description

This portrait has been said to depict Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend (1675–1738), although Singh catalogued it simply as a half-length portrait of a man. Certainly, the facial features of the sitter are quite different from other known portraits of the 2nd Viscount and, compared to Jervas’s portrait of him (NPG 1755), for example, the sitter in the present painting has a shorter and more rounded nose. RN85 can be compared to another version of the portrait at the Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham (LDORL 00698), signed ‘GKneller’ and dated 1709. Here, the sitter is described as ‘Colonel Townsend’, although the specific identity is unknown.

by Emily Knight

Bibliography

Prince Frederick Duleep Singh, Portraits in Norfolk Houses, ed. Rev. Edmund Farrer, vol. 2, Norwich : Jarrold and Sons, 1928, vol. 2, p. 235, no. 60 (‘MAN’)


Related catalogue items from Raynham Hall

  • Castle Howard Raynham Hall

    Unknown Man

    circle of Gilbert Soest, Late 1640s–50s

  • Castle Howard Raynham Hall

    Ethelreda ‘Audrey’ Harrison (c.1708–1788)

    attributed to Enoch Seeman, c.1730

  • Castle Howard Raynham Hall

    Horatio Townshend (c.1683–1751)

    Godfrey Kneller, c.1715