Portrait of Richard Paul Jodrell (1745-1831) in a black coat against a red curtain inscribed 'Portrait of Richard Paul Jodrell Esqr. / of Portland Place &c. A. D. 1810 / Born Nov 14th / O.S. 1745 painted by Browne / and died Jan. 26th / 1831, having been in possession of his paternal estate 80 years' (on an old label to the reverse) oil on canvas 74 x 62cm

Provenance: Christie's, London, 12th November 1998, lot 66

The sitter, a classical scholar and dramatist, was the eldest son of Paul Jodrell of Duffield, Derbyshire, solicitor-general to Frederick, Prince of Wales and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Warner of North Elmham, Norfolk. He was educated at Eton and Oxford, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1772 and of the Society of Antiquaries in 1784. In 1772, he married his second cousin Vertue (d. 1806) eldest daughter and co-heiress of Edward Hase, of Salle, Norfolk and niece of John Hase, later Sir John Lombe, 1st Bt, with whom he had five sons and two daughters. He was a friend of Dr Samuel Johnson and in 1790 was elected Member of Parliament for Seaford, Sussex. He suffered from mental impairment for the last ten years of his life and died in Portland Place. The present portrait is known from an engraving by Charles T. Heath Heath after Mather Brown which was published in 1820. A portrait of this sitter by Thomas Gainsborough from the 1770s is now in the Frick Collection, New York.

The painting is executed in oil on a canvas support which appears to be unlined. The canvas tension is good and the picture is generally in plane. At the lower left corner are diagonal stress cracks in the paint layer which has led to raised paint and losses. The rest of the of the paint layer is stable. There are areas of overpaint cover cracks and abrasion to the paint layer. The varnish is slightly uneven but clear. There is a light layer of surface dirt present. Framed 90 x 78cm