Framed oil painting: Robert Craggs Nugent, later Earl Nugent (1702-1788) by Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), oil on canvas c. 1761. On loan from a private collection.
Key information
Museum number
L2007.3
Object
Framed oil painting: Robert Craggs Nugent, later Earl Nugent (1702-1788) by Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), oil on canvas c. 1761. On loan from a private collection.
Gallery label
Robert Craggs Nugent, later Earl Nugent (1702-1788)
Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)
Oil on canvas, about 1761
Robert Craggs Nugent, Irish peer and MP for Bristol, was instrumental in passing the 1750 Act for the Regulation of Slave Trade, which dismantled the Royal Africa Company and created the African Company of Merchants. This expanded the transatlantic slave trade to an unprecedented scale.
Gainsborough captures Nugent’s casual attitude as he sits with one leg crossed, catching the viewer’s eye. The elegant interior is the artist’s Bath studio. This was the first portrait that Gainsborough exhibited in London, at the Society of Artists’ show in 1761, and it is one of the two portraits of Nugent that he painted.
L2007.3 On long-term loan from a private collection
Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)
Oil on canvas, about 1761
Robert Craggs Nugent, Irish peer and MP for Bristol, was instrumental in passing the 1750 Act for the Regulation of Slave Trade, which dismantled the Royal Africa Company and created the African Company of Merchants. This expanded the transatlantic slave trade to an unprecedented scale.
Gainsborough captures Nugent’s casual attitude as he sits with one leg crossed, catching the viewer’s eye. The elegant interior is the artist’s Bath studio. This was the first portrait that Gainsborough exhibited in London, at the Society of Artists’ show in 1761, and it is one of the two portraits of Nugent that he painted.
L2007.3 On long-term loan from a private collection
On display?
Yes
