Thomas Hudson, British (1701-1799)
Framed Portrait of Thomas Williams 1755
Half length, wearing a brown Coat, Blue and gold Waistcoat and a white Lace Cravat.
Oil on canvas
75 x 62cm
Relined. Before relining the old canvas was signed and dated: "Thos. Williams Esq. Thos. Hudson. Pinxit 1755"
A photograph of this painting and of the inscription has been lodged at the Witt Library, Courtauld Institute, London.
Prov:
Ex Douglas Wing collection, Rye Sussex 1962.
The Ken Bernard Smith Collection, Sydney
Private collection.
The "Douglas Wing collection" refers to an esteemed private assortment of Old Master and 17th-to-19th-century British portraiture assembled by art dealer Douglas Wing, based at the Old Hall Gallery (and later School House) in Iden, Rye, East Sussex, during the mid-20th century
Thomas Hudson (1701–1779) born in Devon, and was well known as a portrait painter, acquiring the patronage of London society during the 1740s and 1750s. He trained under the successful portrait painter Jonathan Richardson, later marrying his daughter.
Having established his own portrait-painting practice, Hudson became increasingly fashionable. His many pupils included Joshua Reynolds and Joseph Wright of Derby.