Thomas Wilde, 1st Baron Truro (1782-1855) Lord Chancellor

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

The original ‘oil on canvas’ portrait on which this mezzotint engraving is based was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1851.

Lord Truro’s portrait is in the collection at St. Paul’s School, London, while copies are in the National Portrait Gallery and Palace of Westminster collections. This print after the portrait is signed ‘Truro C.’, presumably by the sitter.

Sir Francis Grant, son of a Scottish Laird, took up painting professionally after having exhausted his £10,000 inheritance by his late 20s. An early enthusiasm for fox hunting led him to settle at Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, the centre of hunting society, where he studied under the well-known sporting painter, John Ferneley. In 1840 Grant’s portrait of Queen Victoria riding with Prime Minister Lord Melbourne and others in the Great Park at Windsor established his reputation and he soon became one of the most fashionable society painters of the day. He was elected a member of the Royal Academy in 1851 and its President in 1865. Grant died at the age of 75 and was buried at the cemetery near his country residence at Melton Mowbray.
George James Zobel produced line, mezzotint and mixed media engravings, and occasionally etchings, mainly of portraiture subjects. He was probably born in Germany but lived in Brixton, London, for much of his career, with his wife and children. He exhibited 35 works at the Royal Academy between 1854 and 1879 and is reported to have frequently executed works for Queen Victoria, the Prince of Wales and other members of the royal family. Zobel’s wife died at their home in Lorn Road, Brixton, in 1878, aged 59. The announcement of her death in the ‘London Standard’ was followed by the words: ‘German papers, please copy.’ Zobel himself died at the age of 70.

People

Thomas, 1st Baron Truro Wilde (1782 - 1855)

Places

Subjects

male portrait, wig, legal bands, Chancellor's Purse, Baron, Solicitor General, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Attorney General, Member of Parliament, Lord Chancellor, mace, armchair, curtain

Materials & Techniques

mezzotint

Artist

Sir Francis Grant (1803 - 1878)
George James Zobel (1810 - 1881)

Title

Thomas Wilde, 1st Baron Truro (1782-1855) Lord Chancellor

Date

published 1851

Medium

Mezzotint

Acquisition

Purchased from Mrs Dorothy Lane, February 1958

Inscription

below image [right; in ink] Truro C.

GAC number

4486