Oil painting, 'Henry Hare, Third Baron Coleraine, FRS FSA (1693-1749)', British School, Early to mid-18th century

Bust-length portrait of a man, facing the viewer with his head turned slightly to the viewer’s left, wearing a red jacket, white cravat and back tricorne hat with gold trim over a white periwig, against a plain grey background.

Bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, 1868

Bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, 1868. The sitter is Townshend’s great-grandfather.

The sitter in this portrait has been identified as Henry Hare, 3rd Baron Colraine; maternal great-grandfather of Rev. Chauncy Hare Townshend, who in 1868 bequeathed this painting to the South Kensington Museum, now the V&A.

A leading antiquary and collector, Baron Colraine was founder member of the Society of Antiquaries and in 1727, he was made vice-president. Through the society, he met George Vertue, the group’s official engraver, of whom he became a close friend and patron. Vertue’s engraving of Baron Colraine is now in the British Museum (Museum no. 1883,0908.29).

Baron Colraine undertook several grand tours of Italy, during which he made a collection of prints and drawings of the country’s antiquities, buildings, and paintings. He also accompanied George Vertue on a number of his antiquarian tours of England, during which he made a similar collection of drawings and prints relating to the buildings and antiquities of Britain. At his death, Baron Colraine had amassed a large collection of prints, drawings, paintings, coins, medals and other antiquities. Though the bulk of his collection was sold at auction, the prints and drawings from his Italian tours were bequeathed to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where Baron Colraine had been a student. The prints and drawings from his tours of Britain, he bequeathed to the Society of Antiquaries.

In 1718, Baron Colraine married Anne Hanger (1699-1754) however the marriage was not a success and in 1720, Lady Hare left her husband. In 1740, Baron Colraine entered into an unorthodox and illegal contract with Rose Duplessis, (or du Plessis) (1710–1790), with whom he had his only child, a daughter. In 1763, this daughter, Henrietta Rose, married James Townsend, with whom she had a son, Henry Hare Townsend, later Lord Mayor of London and father of Chauncy Hare Townshend, an early benefactor of the V&A.

The painter of this portrait has yet to be identified, however the sitter’s ‘justaucorps’ or jacket, powdered periwig and tricorne hat suggest a date in the first half of the eighteenth century, possibly c.1720s. Discussions with the Textile and Fashion Department indicate that the lack of visible detail in relation to the sitter’s attire mean it is not possible to give a more precise date. There are two other known portraits of Henry Hare, 3rd Baron Colraine. George Vertue’s engraved portrait in the British Museum, dated 1740 when the sitter would have been forty-seven and the c.1714/15 portrait of Baron Colraine as a young man, attributed to Jonathan Richardson the elder, held by the Society of Antiquaries. On the basis of these likenesses, it seems probable that the V&A’s portrait of Baron Colraine was painted sometime between the two.

This portrait depicts the antiquarian Henry Hare, 3rd Baron Coleraine. He was the great-grandfather of Chauncy Hare-Townsheand, an early benefactor of the V&A, who bequeathed this painting in 1869. Baron Coleraine was one of many English Grand Tourists who travelled to Italy in the eighteenth century. During his visits, Baron Coleraine amassed a comprehensive collection of prints and drawings of the country’s antiquities, buildings and paintings. He was a founder member of the Society of Antiquaries and in 1727, he was made vice-president.

1412-1869