Portrait of Lord Rawdon

Portrait of Lord Rawdon is an oil on canvas portrait painting by the English artist Thomas Gainsborough, from 1784. It depicts the Anglo-Irish soldier and politician Lord Rawdon. He is shown at full-length in his British Army uniform against an Arcadian background. It is held im the São Paulo Museum of Art.^[1]

Rawdon had notably served under Lord Cornwallis during the Southern Campaign of the American War of Independence. Later made Earl of Moira, he was a leading Whig and a close ally and friend of the future king George IV, who unsuccessfully tried to have him become Prime Minister during the Regency era.^[2]

Gainsborough was one of Britain's most fashionable portraits who had relocated from Bath to the capital a decade earlier. This was a dual commission, as Cornwallis and Rawdon both commissioned him to produce a portrait so they could exchange the pictures.^[3][4]

The painting was one of eighteen paintings Gainsborough submitted to the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1784 at Somerset House. After a dispute with his fellow members of the Royal Academy over the hanging arrangements, he withdrew all the paintings at the last moment.^[5] He instead exhibited them at his own residence at Schomberg House, in Pall Mall. This marked his final break with the academy and he didn't display his work there again. ^[6]

Shortly after Gainsborough's death, his long-standing rival Joshua Reynolds produced his own depiction of the sitter, Portrait of Lord Moira, one of his final works.^[7]

• Hamilton, James. Gainsborough: A Portrait. Hachette UK, 2017.
• Hutchinson, Martin. Lord Liverpool: Britain's Greatest Prime Minister. Lutterworth Press, 2020
• Ingamells, John. National Portrait Gallery Mid-Georgian Portraits, 1760–1790. National Portrait Gallery, 2004.
• Lindsay, Jack. Thomas Gainsborough: His Life and Art. Granada, 1981.