Oil painting Ralph Thoresby
Object number
LDSAL505
Artist/Designer/Maker
Unknown artist - Artist
Production date
Early 18th century
Material
oil paint
canvas (paint canvas)
canvas (paint canvas)
Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Height: 515mm
Width: 413mm
Width: 413mm
Location
Burlington House -
Content description
Thoresby is depicted bust-length, turned to the left, but looking almost full-face at the viewer. He appears plump and fresh-complexioned with a smile and dark grey eyes. He wears a thick and curly brown wig, of which the outlines melt into the brown background. His coat is also brown, relieved by a white cravat.
Inscriptions
Inscription date
17/03/1835
Oil on canvas portrait of Ralph Thoresby (1658-1725), in gilt frame.
Ralph Thoresby (1658-1725) was the son of a Leeds wool merchant whose business he carried on until 1704. He had always been interested in antiquities, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1697, published many communications in its Philosophical Transactions and corresponded with most of the leading British antiquaries of the day. After his retirement from the cloth trade, he turned increasingly to antiquarian pursuits, expanding his father’s collection of antiquities, the Musaeum Thoresbyanum, and continuing his research on the history of Leeds and the surrounding area. His most substantial publication was Ducatus Leodiensis, or, The Topography of Leedes (1715), which included a catalogue of the museum. This was the first work of importance by a Yorkshire antiquary, and the Leeds Historical Society founded in 1889, was named The Thoresby Society in his honour.
Thoresby’s diaries illuminate the possible origins of this picture: 12 Mar 1703 ‘Sent for by Monsieur Permentier, who obliged me to sit for my picture’; 1 July 1712 ‘Was, afternoon, with Mr. Vertue, sitting for the picture to be engraven’; 3 July 1712 ‘walked to Mr Vertue’s with the picture’. The copy of Vertue’s engraving in the collection he assembled for Edward Harley, Lord Oxford, is annotated in Vertue’s hand ‘partly drawn from the life....GV’
The Society's painting could be a copy of the portrait described above, in a rectangular as opposed to an oval. The Society's portrait is possibly by George Vertue (1684-1756), although he is not known to have painted in oil, and it is more probably by another artist working in Yorkshire.
Thoresby’s diaries illuminate the possible origins of this picture: 12 Mar 1703 ‘Sent for by Monsieur Permentier, who obliged me to sit for my picture’; 1 July 1712 ‘Was, afternoon, with Mr. Vertue, sitting for the picture to be engraven’; 3 July 1712 ‘walked to Mr Vertue’s with the picture’. The copy of Vertue’s engraving in the collection he assembled for Edward Harley, Lord Oxford, is annotated in Vertue’s hand ‘partly drawn from the life....GV’
The Society's painting could be a copy of the portrait described above, in a rectangular as opposed to an oval. The Society's portrait is possibly by George Vertue (1684-1756), although he is not known to have painted in oil, and it is more probably by another artist working in Yorkshire.