William Lowndes, Auditor of His Majesty's Court of Exchequer
Date:
1771
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
49 15/16 x 40 3/16 inches (126.8 x 102.1 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1976.7.185
Gallery Label:
As the inscription states, William Lowndes was in his eighty-fourth year when he engaged Thomas Gainsborough to paint his portrait. It was presumably intended for Lowndes’s country house, the old manor of AstwoodBury in Buckinghamshire, which he purchased before 1752. Lowndes’s father and namesake was a famously successful Secretary to the Treasury during the reign of Queen Anne, who made a fortune by shrewd property investments, and, according to Lord Chesterfield (writing in 1747), coined the phrase “take care of the pence for the pounds will take care of themselves.” It was thought to be entirely appropriate for public officials to secure senior positions in the government for their children and friends, so Mr. Lowndes Jr. followed his father to the Treasury, and the family continued to prosper through the eighteenth century. He died in 1775, not long after Gainsborough painted his portrait, full of sympathy and life, seated beside his favorite spaniel. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016