Isaac and Ede Antique Prints
Reynolds Spilsbury

Jonathan Spilsbury after Sir Joshua Reynolds.

The Right Hon. Frederick Howard, Earl of Carlisle.

The Howard family have been at the very heart of the English establishment since the ennoblement of the first earl, Charles Howard, in 1661 and the dynasty continues at Castle Howard to this day. Here we see Frederick, later to become the 5th earl, an unruly teenager aged 14. Rebellious, by all accounts, and later to become an inveterate gambler he has nevertheless been made to pose in full van Dyke attire replete with collar, cuffs and fancy rosettes. There is, however, a slight look of defiance in his expression, beautifully captured by Reynolds, that alludes to an underlying waywardness. Like many men of his aristocratic upbringing, he was packaged off to Italy in 1768 on a Grand Tour where, in a letter to George Selwyn, he had a moment of self-reckoning: "I am grown fat with the regular life I lead". A swift return to England, an advantageous marriage and 10 children would soon put paid to all that. He became a much-respected statesman, diplomat and author, completed the construction of Castle Howard and filled it with his enviable art collection.

£1200
14 x 19 inches
Framed
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