Lot 106: Robert Hunter , fl.1752-1803 Portrait of Hercules Rowley, 2nd Viscount Langford (1737-1796) oil on canvas

full-length, seated holding a book in his right hand, in an extensive woodland landscape oil on canvas

measurements note 76 by 61 cm., 30 by 25 in.

A. Crookshank, 'Robert Hunter,' Irish Arts Review, 1989-1990, p. 182, no. 46

By descent in the Longford family, Pakenham Hall until the 1960s

The sitter was the son and heir of Hercules Rowley and his wife Elizabeth Upton. His father served as M.P. for Londonderry between 1743 and 1760 and for County Meath 1761-1794. In 1766 his mother was created Baroness Summerhill and Viscountess Langford with patrimony to her male heirs by her husband and on her death in 1791 he succeeded to the viscountcy. He served as M.P. for County Antrim in two parliaments between 1783 and 1791. On his death without issue the peerage became extinct, but his cousin, Clotworthy Taylor, changed his name to Rowley and was created Baron Langford of Summerhill, County Leath. Early in his career Hunter painted a number of full lengths and exhibited eight such portraits at the Society of Artists. In the past these have been confused with the work of Arthur Devis, though as Anne Crookshank has pointed out they do not share Devis's 'doll-like manner'. Rowley's sister Catherine married Edward Pakenham, 2υnd Baron Longford, who was also painted in a similar format by Hunter. Both portraits descended through the Longford family until the 1960s.