Captain Samuel Sharpe Pocklington with His Wife, Pleasance, and possibly His Sister, Frances
George Stubbs·1769
Historical Context
George Stubbs's portrait of Captain Samuel Sharpe Pocklington with his wife Pleasance and possibly his sister Frances, painted in 1769, is a characteristic English conversation piece combining portraiture with landscape. Stubbs, best known for his horse paintings, also produced elegant group portraits of the English gentry in their park settings. These outdoor conversation pieces celebrate the relationship between the landed class and their estates.
Technical Analysis
Stubbs's oil-on-canvas technique renders the figures with naturalistic precision in a carefully observed parkland setting. His characteristic clarity of drawing and cool, luminous palette create an atmosphere of English gentility, while the landscape demonstrates the same precision he brought to his animal painting.
Provenance
Painted for Samuel Sharpe Pocklington [d. 1781], Chelsworth Hall, Suffolk; by descent through his elder son, Colonel Sir Robert Pocklington, who married Catherine Blagrave, to John Blagrave, Calcot Park, Berkshire; (sale, Messrs. Foster, London, 28 June 1911, no. 102); purchased by Francis Howard for (M. Knoedler & Co., New York, London, and Paris); purchased by 1913 by Charles Stewart Carstairs [1865-1928], London; by inheritance to his wife, Mrs. Charles S. Carstairs [née Elizabeth Stebbins, d. 1949], London;[1] bequest 1952 to NGA. [1] According to a letter (copy in NGA curatorial files) from Mrs. Carstairs to David Finley, 15 November 1947, the painting never left England, and always hung in the Carstairs house in London. Charles S. Carstairs was the director of Knoedler's London branch. Mrs. Carstairs' maiden name is provided in a letter of 13 February 1995 from Dr. Lorne Campbell, of the National Gallery, London, in NGA curatorial files.
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