Circle of Christian Richter, Portrait of a Man, Possibly Henry Lowther, 3rd Viscount Lonsdale, ca. 1710–20

Chicago:

Blythe Sobol, “Circle of Christian Richter, Portrait of a Man, Possibly Henry Lowther, 3rd Viscount Lonsdale, ca. 1710–20,” catalogue entry in Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan, The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, vol. 1, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2025), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.2110.

MLA:

Sobol, Blythe. “Circle of Christian Richter, Portrait of a Man, Possibly Henry Lowther, 3rd Viscount Lonsdale, ca. 1710–20,” catalogue entry. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan. The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, vol. 1, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2025. doi: 10.37764/8322.5.2110.

This portrait was previously attributed to the Swedish miniaturist Christian Richter, but its poor condition, due to damage and overpaint, makes this difficult to confirm with certainty. It appears, furthermore, that the monogram may have been added later, either to capitalize on the miniature’s resemblance to works by Richter or to reinforce a heavily damaged inscription by the artist. There are multiple campaigns of retouching in areas of significant loss, particularly in the hair, cravat, coat, and blue drapery.¹ These changes suggest a mid- to late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century treatment campaign, perhaps to prepare the work for sale.

The date of this miniature, between 1710 and 1720, as well as the sitter’s youthful appearance, precludes the possibility that it depicts John Lowther, 1st Viscount Lowther (1655–1700),² who died at forty-five before this miniature was painted. It probably portrays one of his elder sons, either Richard Lowther, 2nd Viscount Lonsdale (1692–1713) or, more likely, Henry Lowther, 3rd Viscount Lonsdale (1694–1751), who would have been in his late teens or early twenties when this miniature was painted. A portrait of Henry Lowther resembles the Nelson-Atkins sitter, sharing his oval face, fair complexion, light-colored eyes, straight nose, and shapely lips, with light brown wavy hair (or a peruke) (Fig. 1).³

Christian Richter did, in fact, paint John Lowther, presumably this sitter’s father, as an aged man, wearing a blue drapery similar to that in the Nelson-Atkins miniature but draped over the opposite shoulder.⁴ While such accessories, especially in blue, were a common feature in portraits by Richter and his contemporaries in the 1710s, the blue fabric of the Nelson-Atkins sitter’s mantle was entirely overpainted.⁵ This may have been done to create a further resemblance not only to Richter’s work in general but also to his miniature of Lowther senior specifically—which is notably dated 1700 but later altered to 1710, perhaps to correspond with the date of the Nelson-Atkins miniature. An unscrupulous restorer may have altered one or both miniatures to make them appear to depict the same man.⁶

Henry Lowther followed in the footsteps of his father, whose prestigious court appointments in the 1790s included Lord High Treasurer, Vice-Chamberlain of the Household, and Lord Privy Seal before being named 1st Viscount Lonsdale. Henry succeeded his brother Richard as 3rd Viscount in 1713, and in 1715 he was commended for his efforts, albeit unsuccessful, with the Lord Lieutenant of Cumberland to gather troops against the 1715 Jacobite rising.⁷ In 1717, he was appointed a Lord of the Bedchamber to King George I and became a member of the Privy Council and Constable of the Tower of London in 1726. Three years later, Lowther abandoned life at court, retiring to his country home, Lowther House, where he died unmarried on March 7, 1751.⁸

Notes

1. We are grateful to Bernd Pappe for his observations on the miniature’s attribution, monogram, and condition during a July 23–25, 2023, visit. Preliminary examination through UV conducted by Pappe and Nelson-Atkins conservator Stephanie Spence reveals the possible presence of zinc white and lake pigments. However, positive identification of pigments requires scientific analysis to confirm the chemical composition, which has not been performed. See technical notes in NAMA curatorial files.

2. Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659–1743) painted John Lowther probably shortly before his death in 1700, clearly a middle-aged man. Hyacinthe Rigaud, John Lowther, 1st Viscount Lonsdale (1655–1700), First Lord of the Treasury and Lord Privy Seal, n.d., oil on canvas, 28 1/4 x 25 3/16 in. (71.7 x 64 cm), Government Art Collection, London, https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/john-lowther-1st-viscount-lonsdale-16551700-first-lord-of-the-treasury-and-lord-privy-seal-29128.

3. An inscription carved into the heavily marked gesso on the back of the miniature’s prepared vellum support appears to read “Aetat,” presumably to be followed by the sitter’s age at the time of the portrait. Unfortunately, it is not legible, and it awaits further technological advances to reveal its secrets. In an oil painting of Henry Lowther painted a few years later, John Vanderbank (1694–1739) depicts him fuller in the face but with the blue eyes, gently curved brows, aquiline nose, and curved pink lips of the Nelson-Atkins sitter. John Vanderbank, Portrait of Henry Lowther, 3rd Viscount Lonsdale, 1721, oil on canvas, 49 3/4 x 39 5/8 in. (126.3 x 100.5 cm), Columbia University, New York, https://dlc.library.columbia.edu/catalog/cul:280gb5mncr.

4. Richter clearly copied Lowther’s features from the Rigaud portrait (see n. 3), only altering the clothing. Christian Richter, John Lowther, 1st Viscount Lonsdale PG FRS (1655–1700), 1700 (altered to 1710), watercolor on vellum, 2 7/8 in. (7.3 cm), sold at Bonham’s, London, November 25, 2009, lot 10, https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/17787/lot/10/.

5. Pappe, notes in NAMA curatorial files, 2023.

6. In this case, the Nelson-Atkins miniature is either a heavily damaged and retouched original or a copy after another lost miniature by Richter.

7. He took up arms once more in 1745 against the Jacobites. The skirmish fought in protection of his home, Lowther Hall, on December 19, 1745, was said to be the last land battle fought on English soil. Stuart Reid, 1745: A Military History of the Last Jacobite Rising (Staplehurst, UK: Spellmount, 2001), 76–80.

8. The Lowther estates, depleted after the South Sea Bubble in 1720, were inherited by a second cousin. Lewis Saul Benjamin, The South Sea Bubble (London: Butler and Tanner, 1923), 158. The South Sea Bubble was the world’s first financial crash. Thousands of investors, largely in Britain, were ruined after the collapse of a joint-stock enterprise, called the South Sea Company, centered on creating a monopoly over the trade of enslaved Africans to South and Central America (which encompassed the “South Seas” in the Georgian era).

With Duveen Brothers, London, by 1912 [1];

Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1950–1958;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.

Notes

[1] It is unknown when the Duveens acquired or sold the miniature, but it was in their hands by 1912, when they loaned it to an exhibition in Brussels. International Exhibition of Miniatures, Brussels, 1912: British Section (London: Speaight, 1912), 24.

Unknown, Henry Lowther, 3rd Viscount Lonsdale, n.d., watercolor on paper, 5 3/4 x 4 5 /16 in. (14.6 x 10.9 cm), Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, PG 2109.

John Vanderbank, Portrait of Henry Lowther, 3rd Viscount Lonsdale, 1721, oil on canvas, 49 3/4 x 39 5/8 in. (126.3 x 100.5 cm), Columbia University, New York, C00.0806.

International Exhibition of Miniatures, Brussels, 1912, no. 298.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 26.

International Exhibition of Miniatures, Brussels, 1912: British Section (London: Speaight, 1912), 24.

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 265.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 26, p. 15, (repro.), as John Lowther, Viscount Lonsdale.