Lot 681: Attributed to Thomas Stewardson (1781-1859)

Attributed to Thomas Stewardson (1781-1859) PORTRAIT OF LIEUTENANT-COLONEL THOMAS RICHMOND-GALE- BRADDYLL (1776 - 1862), three-quarter length, in the uniform of the Coldstream Guards, a cavalry skirmish in the background Oil on canvas laid down on board 126 x 100cm Provenance: By descent in the family; Colonel Sir George Hulton; Christies's, 22nd March, 1957 (lot 74), as by Sir William Beechey, (the sitter wrongly identified as Colonel Wilson Gale Braddyll); Christie's, 25th October, 1988 (lot 49), as School of Sir William Beechey (also is Colonel Wilson Gale Braddyll); Private collection, Cumbria Thomas Richmond-Gale-Braddyll was born in 1776, the only son of Wilson Gale Braddyll. He married Frances, daughter of Charles Bagot Chester in 1803. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Coldstream Guards in 1810 and retired after service in the Peninsular Wars. He also founded the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry, which was later amalgamated with the Royal Lancashire Militia. He came to Parliament as MP for Bodmin 1818-20, and was Sherriff of Lancashire 1821-22. He was painted twice by Reynolds, the first probably in 1783 (Mannings no. 236) and then in the family portrait of 1789 (Mannings no. 239), now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. On the death of his father in 1818 he inherited a large but mostly depleted estate in Cumberland and Lancashire, and in 1821 he commissioned Philip Wyatt to re-build his seat at Conishead Priory to a grand Neo-Gothic design. It took fifteen years to complete and £140,000 of his fortune.