Lot 14: William Russell Birch (British/American, 1755-1834) Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham (1730-1782), wearing the robes of the Order of the Garter, his brown hair worn en queue

Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham (1730-1782), wearing the robes of the Order of the Garter, his brown hair worn en queue.
Enamel, signed with initials on the obverse WB/ from Sir/ JR, gold frame.
Oval, 58mm (2 5/16in) high

The present lot is after a portrait painted by Reynolds between 1766-8, the sitter having been installed as a Knight of the Garter in 1761. The original in the Fitzwilliam Collection (owned by a family trust (The Trustees of the Rt. Hon. Olive, Countess Fitzwilliam’s Chattels Settlement)) was included in the exhibition Joshua Reynolds: The Creation of Celebrity at Tate Britain, London in 2005. Birch exhibited a full-length enamel portrait of the same sitter at the Royal Academy in 1788 and another example, very similar to the present lot, but dated 1786 is in the Gilbert Collection, see S. Coffin & B. Hofstetter, The Gilbert Collection, Portrait Miniatures in Enamel, 2000, p.49.

Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, was raised at his family seat, Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire, and was later educated at Westminster and Cambridge. Whilst still in his teens, he joined the army of the Duke of Cumberland when it went north to rout the Jacobite forces of Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Described by a contemporary as 'an amiable and a respectable individual, rather than a superior man', it seems that Rockingham's health was severely undermined by the effects of a sexually transmitted disease acquired whilst he made the Grand Tour as a youth. However, this did not prohibit him from leading a full and active life. Appointed a Lord of the Bedchamber to George II in 1751, Rockingham entered Parliament that same year and went on to head the Whig opposition to the Tory Earl of Bute, one of the most prominent political figures of the mid-eighteenth century. Rockingham himself also served two short but noteworthy terms as Prime Minister, the first between July 1765 and July 1766 and the second from March 1782 until his death five months later. He was a supporter of constitutional rights for the American colonists and backed their claims for independence. Several counties in the fledgling United States (in Virginia, North Caroline and New Hampshire) were thereafter named in his honour.