George Henry Harlow
Portrait of Reverend Joseph Thomas of Epsom (1765–1811), half-length, wearing a black coat and white stock with a book in his right hand
Estimate
8,000 - 12,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
George Henry Harlow
London 1787–1819
Portrait of Reverend Joseph Thomas of Epsom (1765–1811), half-length, wearing a black coat and white stock with a book in his right hand
oil on canvas
unframed: 76.4 x 63.7 cm.; 30⅛ x 25⅛ in.
framed: 89.3 x 77.1 cm.; 35⅛ x 30⅜ in.
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 19 January 1979, lot 39 (as Ramsay Richard Reinagle, Portrait of the Reverend Joseph Thomas);
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 19 February 1986, lot 316 (as George Henry Harlow, Portrait of the Reverend Joseph Thomas of Epsom);
Anonymous sale, Rudolstadt, Kunst-Auktionshaus WENDL, 1 March 2025, lot 3312 (as Portrait of a gentleman);
Where acquired.
Born in 1765 in Llanerfyl, Montgomeryshire, Joseph Thomas attended Shrewsbury School and St John's College, Cambridge. He graduated in 1789 and was ordained deacon by the Bishop of Winchester the following year. In 1791, Joseph married Millecent Parkhurst, the daughter of the biblical scholar, the Reverend John Parkhurst of Epsom (1728–1797). The Parkhurst family owned the Manor of Epsom from 1706 to 1770. After the main house was sold, the remaining holdings – Epsom Court, with the tithes and advowson of St Martin's Church – descended to John.
Today, Joseph is best known as a patron of William Blake (1757–1827). For instance, in 1801, he commissioned a set of eight watercolour illustrations for John Milton's Comus. In 1807, he acquired a set of twelve watercolour illustrations for Paradise Lost, as well as six watercolours illustrating 'On the Morning of Christ's Nativity' two years later.
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