(British, 1711-1787)

Portrait of Thomas Starkie, of Frenchwood House, Preston, England, full-length, sitting by a tree, holding a book, circa 1749, unsigned, various labels verso, oil on canvas, 25-1/2 x 18-7/8 in.; an appropriate Louis XV style carved and gilt wood frame, 32-1/8 x 25-3/8 x 2-3/8 in.

Provenance: Lady Mountain, Dunkeld House; With Pawsey & Payne, London, 1924 (as depicting Albury Church, near Guildford); Sotheby's, United Kingdom, Town & Country: A Private Collection, December 3-14, 2021, lot 60; The Jerold Krouse Collection

Note: This painting is the second version of the portrait painted in 1749 and now held by the Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston.

Thomas Starkie, a Preston solicitor and son of Nicholas Starkie, Attorney General of the County Palatine, was an active Town Council member alongside his brother Edmund. Both were noted for their Jacobite sympathies. Elected mayor of Preston in 1754, Starkie is shown here at Frenchwood House, built around 1730. Behind him stretch views of the Ribble Valley, Saint Leonard’s Church at Walton-le-Dale, and Hoghton Tower on the distant hill.

Reference: S. Sartin, Polite Society by Arthur Devis, 1712–1787: Portraits of the English Country Gentleman and His Family, Preston 1983, p. 50, no. 21, reproduced in catalog.