The Hood Museum purchased a 1756 portrait of the College’s namesake, William Legge, the second Earl of Dartmouth, earlier this month.
Photo: Courtesy of the Hood Museum
The Hood Museum of Art purchased a renowned portrait of Dartmouth’s benefactor and namesake, the second Earl of Dartmouth William Legge, on behalf of the College on June 6. It is the only portrait of Lord Dartmouth painted during his lifetime that the College possesses, according to Brian Kennedy, director of the Hood. The portrait is he work of the highly celebrated portraitist Pompeo Batoni, who painted Legge’s likeness between 1753 and 1756.
Since the time of its completion, the portrait has been owned by the maternal side of Lord Dartmouth’s family. The Hood had known about the painting for many years and seized the opportunity to add the portrait to the Dartmouth Collection when it went to auction at Sotheby’s in London.
“The opportunity had to be taken to purchase the work at auction now, lest it enter another collection and be lost to Dartmouth forever,” Kennedy wrote in an e-mail message.
Representatives of the Hood examined the painting at a pre-auction exhibition in New York, and bid on it at the London auction via telephone.
The Hood will display the portrait with other works of European Art, although Kennedy said he did not know when it would go on display.
Lord Dartmouth traveled through the European continent from 1751 to 1754 on the European Grand Tour. He became president of the Board of Trade in 1765 and secretary of state for the colonies in 1772.
Batoni painted the portrait during Lord Dartmouth’s trip to Rome. The artist was technically skilled at painting with oils on canvas, and was noted for painting portraits of many of the British and Irish nobility as well as mythological and historical scenes.
“The portrait[of Lord Dartmouth] is an excellent example of Batoni’s early career, when he painted three-quarter length portraits of members of the British and Irish landed gentry when they visited Rome while on the Grand Tour of Europe,” Kennedy said. “It is an important work of European eighteenth century grand portraiture from an historical, aesthetic, symbolic and cultural perspective.”
The recent arrival of Batoni’s portrait to the College is a marker of the artistic prestige of the Hood.
“The purchase of the Batoni portrait shows that the Hood’s reputation and credibility is already such that donors are willing to donate significant sums to support the museum’s artistic aspirations on behalf of Dartmouth College,” Kennedy said.
