Lot 12: John Ellys (c. 1701-1757)

Portrait of Charles, 1st Lord Whitworth and his nephew, three-quarter-length, the former seated, in a brown, embroidered coat, beside a table, holding a letter in his right hand, the latter standing in a blue embroidered coat, beside the bust of a Roman Emperor
inscribed 'To our Right/Trusty And well/beloved Charles/Lord Whitworth/Our Ambafador/and Plenipotent.y/at the Congrefs/at Cambray' (on the letter) and with coat-of-arms (on the table cloth)
oil on canvas
47 x 64 in. (119.3 x 162.6 cm.)

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 2 June 1972, lot 94, as 'Jervas' (sold 150 gns.)
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 19 November 1986, lot 34.

Charles Whitworth, who was educated at Westminster and then Trinity College Cambridge, was one of the most prominent diplomats of the first quarter of the eighteenth century. He represented England at the Diet of Ratisbon and was appointed Envoy Extraordinary to Russia in 1704 where his experiences inspired him to write An Account of Russia as it was in the year 1710 which was printed posthumously by Horace Walpole in 1758. In 1711 he was sent as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Tsar and the King of Poland, and in 1714 was appointed English Plenipotentiary at the Congress of Baden. The following year he was minister to the diet at Ratisbon and in 1716 he was envoy to the court of Prussia. The inscription on this picture celebrates his appointment in 1721 as British Plenipotentiary (together with Lord Polwarth) at the Congress of Cambray, his last diplomatic role. He was created Baron Whitworth of Galway in 1720. He married Magdalena Jacoba Countess de Vaulgremont (d.1734) but had no children and the peerage became extinct on his death. He is shown in this portrait with his young nephew Charles (1752-1825), his heir, who was to become a notable diplomat himself.

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