Lot 5: JAMES MAUBERT 1666-1746

PORTRAIT OF COLONEL GEORGE BATE, GOVERNOR OF KINSALE (D. 1725)

measurements note
123 by 98cm., 48 ½ by 38½in.

Three quarter length, standing in a landscape, wearing a tunic and a metal breast plate, a skirmish beyond

Signed l.l. beneath helmet: ...aubert Pinx

Oil on canvas

EXHIBITED

The Glorious Revolution? The Fall and Rise of the British Army 1660-1740, National Army Museum, October 1988-March 1989, no. 116

NOTE

The sitter was appointed to the Governorship of Charles Fort by King George I in 1713, and lived there until his death in 1725. It is likely that the present portrait, a rare example of a signed work by Maubert, was painted circa 1714 on the occasion of his appointment as Governor of the most important defence fort in Ireland. The sitter's distinguished military career began with his appointment as lieutenant in Colonel Henry Rowe's Regiment of Foot in 1695. In 1702 he was promoted to Captain Henry Holt's Regiment of Marines, before transfering to Thomas Brudenell's Regiment of Foot. He served under Churchill as Major in 1707, becoming Lieutenant Colonel in 1708. He remained in Ireland until his death in 1725.

Maubert is thought to have been a native of Ireland, and George Vertue records that he received his "first instructions in drawing and painting" from Gaspar Smitz "in Dublin".