Portrait of William Courtenay, 3rd Viscount Courtenay, later 9th Earl of Devon

Probably commissioned by the sitter, William Courtenay, 3rd Viscount Courtenay and later 9th Earl of Devon (1768–1835), Powderham Castle, Exeter, 1795–1835 [1];

By descent to his nephew, Reverend Francis John Courtenay (1800–1859), Marton House, Penrith, 1835–1859 [2];

By inheritance to his wife, Emma Courtenay (1815–1895), Marton House, Penrith, 1859–1895 [3];

By descent to their son, Reginald Harrison Courtenay, Southampton and Marton House, Penrith, (1857–1925), 1895–1925;

By descent to his son, Charles William Fowle Baker-Courtenay (1889–1963), Marton House, Penrith, 1925–1928 [4];

His sale, Fine Old English Furniture and Porcelain, Miniatures, etc., the Property of Capt. Hector Greenfield, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, of C.W.F. Baker-Courtenay, Esq., of Marton House, Penrith, etc., Puttick and Simpson, London, March 23, 1928, lot 9, erroneously as Portrait of John Bellenden Ker, Esq. (grandson of John, third Lord Bellenden), 1928 [5];

Unknown owner, by November 12, 1934 [6];

Purchased from the unknown owner’s sale, Objects of Vertue, Furs and Lace, Coins and Medals, the Property of the late Rt. Hon. The Lady Northcote, Choice Miniatures, the Property of a Gentleman, etc., Christie’s, London, November 12, 1934, lot 120, erroneously as John Bellenden Ker, Esq., son of John, 3rd Lord Bellenden, by “Yates,” 1934 [7];

Unknown owner, by December 14, 1944 [8];

Purchased from the unknown owner’s sale, Valuable Jewels and Objects of Vertu, Miniatures, Watches, Jades, Ivories, etc., Sotheby’s, London, December 14, 1944, lot 145A, erroneously as John Bellenden-Ker, son of John, 3rd Lord Bellenden, by Elsie Gertrude Kehoe (1888–1967), Cliffe Dene, Saltdean, Sussex, England, 1944–1950 [9];

Purchased from her sale, Objects of Vertu, Fine Watches, Etc., Including The Property of Mrs. W. D. Dickson; also Fine Portrait Miniatures Comprising The Property of Mrs. Kehoe, Sotheby’s, London, June 15, 1950, lot 153, erroneously as John Bellenden-Ker, by Leggatt Brothers, London, probably on behalf of Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, 1950–1958 [10];

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.

Notes

[1] Courtenay was a significant patron of Richard Cosway, from whom he commissioned at least five portraits of himself and several more of his sisters. Stephen Lloyd has documented how a number of Courtenay’s commissions from Cosway between 1790 and 1812 were not paid for until after Cosway’s death in 1821. Stephen Lloyd, “The Cosway Inventory of 1820: Listing Unpaid Commissions and the Contents of 20 Stratford Place, Oxford Street, London,” Volume of the Walpole Society 66 (2004): 170, 172. I am grateful to intern Bailey McCulloch and researcher Maggie Keenan for their diligent support on the provenance for this miniature.

[2] Francis John Courtenay was probably the same “Francis John” baptized in St. Mary Abbots Church in Kensington, London. His parents, listed in the baptismal register as “John and Anne Courtenay,” almost certainly made efforts to obscure the circumstances of his illegitimate birth. London Metropolitan Archives, ref. MS Dl/T/047/001, digitized on ancestrylibrary.com. Francis John’s parents’ real names were John Bellenden Ker (né Gawler, 1764–1842) and Anne Annesley (née Courtenay, 1774–1835), the sister of William Courtenay, the subject of the Nelson-Atkins miniature. At the time of Francis’s birth, his mother, styled Lady Valentia, was legally separated from her husband George Annesley, lord Valentia. In 1796, John Bellenden Gawler was found guilty of “criminal conversation” with lady Valentia. The extensive divorce proceedings are recorded in detail in David Whitfield, “Valentia v. Valentia,” William Courtenay (1768–1835), July 10, 2018, https://william1768courtenay.com/valentia-v-valentia/.

The miniature may have passed to Courtenay with other family mementos, including his mother’s portrait by Cosway, by the time of her death in 1835. The Nelson-Atkins miniature of William Courtenay, along with Cosway’s portraits of Francis Courtenay’s mother Anne Annesley and a man identified as “Henry Gawler” (more likely Francis Courtenay’s father, John Bellenden Ker, Henry Gawler’s brother), were sold as lots 8–10 in their descendant C. W. F. Baker-Courtenay’s sale in 1928; see note 5.

[3] The inheritance of several Gawler family portraits by their Courtenay descendants was described as follows: “This picture together with the next were presented in 1845 by Henry Gawler to the Rev. Francis Courtenay, from whom it passed into the possession of W. Bellenden Ker, who bequeathed to it Mrs. Courtenay, of Marton House, Penrith, who owned it in 1863.” This narrative refers to portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds of Courtenay’s maternal grandparents, John and Caroline Gawler. Algernon Graves, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. (London: Henry Graves, 1899), 1:353.

[4] At the 1928 sale, Baker-Courtenay sold lots 8–10, all portrait miniatures by Richard Cosway depicting his Gawler and Courtenay ancestors. The longstanding misidentification of the Nelson-Atkins miniature as “John Bellenden Kerr” seems to have begun with this sale.

[5] Described in the sales catalogue as “Portrait of John Bellenden Ker, Esq. (grandson of John, third Lord Bellenden), wearing English fancy dress of the early XVIIth century, his hair powdered, by Richard Cosway, R.A., inscribed at the back ‘Rdus. Cosway, R.A., Pinxit 1795.’” An advertisement for the sale, illustrating NAMA’s miniature, was featured in The Connoisseur 80, no. 319 (March 1928): xvi.

[6] At the 1934 sale, “a Gentleman” sold lots 114–46.

[7] Described in the sales catalogue as “A miniature portrait of John Bellenden Ker, Esq., son of John, 3rd Lord Bellenden. In Black slashed doublet with bright blue scarf and white ruff collar: powdered hair. Signed, and dated 1795 on the reverse. In oval gold frame. From the Collection of the Marquis of Ripon. From the Collection of C. W. F. Baker-Courtenay, Esq.” The miniature was unlikely to have belonged to any Marquess of Ripon, as the miniature was inherited by descent by Baker-Courtenay, and the last Marquess of Ripon, Oliver Robinson, 2nd Marquess of Ripon, died without heirs in 1923, prior to Baker-Courtenay’s 1923 sale. “Yates” is documented as the purchaser of lot 120 in Art Prices Current (London: Hutchinson, 1936), A18.

[8] At the 1944 sale, the miniature was sold under “Other Properties.”

[9] Described in the sales catalogue as “A very fine miniature of John Bellenden-Ker, son of John, 3rd Lord Bellenden, in fancy dress, in a slashed grey doublet, white ruff and blue sash, cloudy sky background, signed in full on the back and dated 1795; gold locket frame.” The miniature was sold alongside 145A, “A very fine miniature by Richard Cosway of John Gawler (solicitor) brother-in-law of the above, also in fancy dress, wearing a slashed white and yellow doublet and ruff and a cloak over his left shoulder, cloudy sky background, in gold locket frame.” These miniatures were both in the collection of C. W. F. Baker-Courtenay and sold together in 1928 (see note 2). With thanks to Maggie Keenan for her work untangling the relationship between Mrs. Kehoe and the Starrs, who considered themselves rival collectors.

[10] Described in the sales catalogue as “John Bellenden-Ker, by Richard Cosway, signed in full and dated 1795, in fancy dress, head and gaze three-quarters sinister, wearing a dark grey doublet slashed and enriched with pale blue, cloud and sky background, 3 in. John Bellenden Ker was the son of John, third lord Bellenden.” Archival research has shown that Leggatt Brothers served as purchasing agents for the Starrs. See correspondence between Betty Hogg and Martha Jane Starr, May 15 and June 3, 1950, Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.