George Romney

Private collection, Switzerland.

Alex Kidson, who endorses the attribution to Romney following first-hand inspection, dates this characterful portrait to 1767–68. Over these years, the artist spent a significant amount of time in Kendal, Cumbria, where the majority of his sitters were provincial businessmen and their families. Kidson has also pointed to the old label on the reverse of the canvas, which appears to read: Leigh / Portrait. This may suggest a connection with Romney's renowned family portrait of the Leigh family, completed in the spring of 1768, which hangs today in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.¹ In his facial features, the present sitter is not dissimilar to Jared Leigh (d. 1769).

¹ Inv. no. 338-5; oil on canvas, 185.8 x 202 cm.