Lot 229: BENJAMIN WILSON

BENJAMIN WILSON LEEDS 1721 - 1788 LONDON PORTRAIT OF SIR GEORGE SAVILE, 8TH BT. (1727-1784), WITH A MAP OF HALIFAX oil on canvas 241.5 by 155 cm.; 95 by 61 in.

E. Waterhouse, British Eighteenth Century Painters, Woodbridge 1981, p. 415

By descent from the sitter

Born in 1726, the sitter was the only son of Sir George Savile, 7υth Bt., and his wife Mary, daughter of John Pratt of Dublin. A descendant of the great statesman the 1υst Marquis of Halifax, Savile was himself no less worthy of note. Educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, he was Member of Parliament for Yorkshire between 1728 and 1734, and remained in Parliament until 1783. Described by one of his contemporaries as 'a pattern of excellence in a British senator', as a politician he was upright, disinterested and independent. Closely associated with his fellow Yorkshire grandee Lord Rockingham, who was also painted by Wilson, Savile spoke often in the house, becoming one of the most respected men in the Commons.

Wilosn's distinctive 'Rembrandtesque' chiaroscuro style led many contemporaries to see him as a serious rival to the young Reynolds, though his known portraits only range up to 1769, when he gave up art in favour of scientific pursuits. The present painting is among his most ambitious portraits, all of which are of prominent Yorkshire sitters, and which also include those of the Lords Mexborough and Rockingham (Private Collections).