JEAN-BAPTISTE VAN LOO AIX-EN-PROVENCE 1684 - 1745 PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM MURRAY, 1ST EARL OF MANSFIELD (1705-1793), HOLDING A BOOK AND A QUILL oil on canvas 91.5 by 71 cm.; 36 by 28 in.
Catalogue of the pictures, the property of Henry Viscount Cornbury, 1750 ('Lord Hyde's Dressing Room....MR SOLICITOR-GENERAL MURRAY'); Lady T. Lewis, Lives of the Friends and Contemporaries of Lord Chancellor Clarendon..., London, 1852, vol. III, p. 257, no. 113; D. Piper and G. Wolstenholme, Royal College of Physicians, London, Portraits, London 1964, pp. 28-29, no. 113; R. Gibson, Catalogue of Portraits in the Collection of the Earl of Clarendon, London, 1977, pp. 87-89, no. 97; J. Ingamells, Mid-Georgian Portraits, London, 2004, p. 330
Provenance
Commissioned in 1738 by Henry Hyde, Viscount Cornbury and 5th Baron Hyde of Hindon who died without issue; by descent to his niece, Charlotte (d.1790), eldest daughter of William Capel, 3rd Earl of Essex (1697-1743), who married Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon (1709-1786), of the second creation; thence by descent to the present owner
Notes
This important portrait of the young William Murray, later to become one of England's greatest judges, was painted in 1738 at a significant time for both the sitter and the artist. In the previous year Murray had established his brilliance as a barrister by his success in two significant cases, one concerning the city of Edinburgh and one the actor Theophilius Cibber, and as a result by the next year his practice saw a substantial improvement and he fought a number of cases before Lord Hardwicke, the Lord Chancellor. Also in 1738 he made a spectaular marriage to Lady Elizabeth Finch daughter of Daniel Finch, 2υnd Earl of Nottingham. The marriage was a very happy one and lasted for forty-six years. This year was also of importance to van Loo who had come to London in December 1737 without any patronage but had within six months achieved an astonishing level of success – Murray was one of his earliest significant patrons. The striking impact made by the portrait is a result of a perfect fusion of an artist at the start of his London career aiming to show his abilities and a sitter confident in his profession.
William Murray was the fourth son of David Murray, 5υth Viscount Stormont, and his wife Marjory Scott. At the age of fourteen he left Scotland for London, travelling there on horseback, and entered Westminster School where he became King's scholar and excelled academically. His early love for the law had initially been dampened by the realisation that such study would be too expensive for his family, but Thomas Lord Foley (father of Thomas Foley who was a friend of Murray's) stepped in to support him. In 1723 he was accepted at Christ Church Oxford where he excelled, defeating William Pitt in a celebrated competition in 1727 for the university prize for Latin verse.
Murray's legal career began in 1730 when, as a member of Lincoln's Inn, he was called to the Bar and entered chambers at 5 King's Bench Walk in the Inner Temple. Many of his early cases concerned disputes in the American colonies, such as a disagreement between Lord Baltimore and the Penn family over the boundaries of Maryland. His first notable success came in April 1737 when he acted as counsel for the City of Edinburgh over the matter of the lynching of Captain John Porteous and the city's failure to prevent it. In December of that year he acted for William Sloper who had been accused by the actor Theophilius Cibber (son of Colley Cibber) of adultery with his wife Susannah. As a result of his success "business poured in upon me on all sides" as quoted by Holliday his biographer. It must surely be no coincidence that van Loo's first portrait on reaching London was Colley Cibber and his Daughter which must have impressed Murray and led to his patronage of van Loo.
Murray's career was on many occasions full of paradoxes. His family had strong Jacobite sympathies and he seems to have shared these, but he was also part of the Whig circle of the Duke of Newcastle through whose influence in 1742 Murray became Solicitor-General and M.P. for Boroughbridge. In 1743 he became Bencher of Lincoln's Inn. As well as being unequalled in his knowledge of the law, Murray was also a consummate advocate, having studied oratory when at Lincoln's Inn, apparently often speaking in front of a mirror whilst being coached by Alexander Pope. In the House of Commons he clashed frequently with his old adversary Pitt, the latter's fiery oratory reminiscent of Demosthenes, being set against Murray's more measured tones, which were likened to Cicero. As Solicitor-General he was invaluable for the legal opinions which he gave to Newcastle's government, notably in 1752 in a significant admiralty case involving the King of Prussia. In 1754 he succeeded Ryder as Attorney-General and in the same year he bought Kenwood House from Lord Bute, and supervised notable improvements to both the house and the grounds with the help of the Adams brothers. He entertained friends and political colleagues at Kenwood, and his Sunday levees, as described by James Boswell, were notable social occasions.
In 1756 he became Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench and was created Lord Mansfield and a Privy Councillor. Some of the famous cases in which he played a major part, such as the matter of John Wilkes and the publication of North Briton, and Junius's Letter to the King, seemed to confirm him as ultra-conservative. However the final results of both cases do not confirm this, and Mansfield showed himself a committed free trader, a believer in religious toleration and a critic of slavery. The Somerset case of 1772 proved to be a notable contribution to the cause of the abolition of slavery. As a judge he was an enemy of long-winded arguments and inefficiency, arranging for the courts to sit for long hours, even on holidays, to ensure that there was no backlog. His greatest contribution was in the field of commercial law – he has rightly been called 'the founder of commercial law in this country'.
By patronising the Jean Baptiste van Loo, Murray had chosen an artist soon to be the leading portrait painter in London. Van Loo arrived with a considerable European reputation and found no real competition when he reached England. As Vertue pointed out "the great employment in six months from his first comeing exceeds any other painter that is come to England in the memory of any one living" ('Notebooks', Walpole Society, 1934, vol. XXII, p.34). Van Loo painted Murray in legal robes (versions at the National Portrait Gallery and Scone Palace), and in formal dress with wig (version at Kenwood and Welbeck). There are however only two portraits which show him 'in undress,' without a wig and wearing an informal velvet suit and hat which would only have been worn in private. Intimate portraits such as this were clearly painted for his close friends. One version, now at the Royal College of Physicians, belonged formerly to Dr Thomas Turton, Bishop of Ely, though its earlier history is unknown. The present version was painted for Murray's friend Henry Hyde, Viscount Cornbury. Hyde was son of Henry Hyde, 4υth Earl of Clarendon, and together with Mansfield part of the Bolingbroke circle. He also shared Murray's strong Jacobite sympathies, and appointed him executor to his will.
