Lot 13: Robert Home , 1752 - 1834 Double Portrait of Lieutenant-Colonel William Sydenham (1752-1801) and his wife Amelia Prime oil on canvas, in a British Rococo style carved and gilded frame

oil on canvas, in a British Rococo style carved and gilded frame

measurements note 74.5 by 90 cm., 29 1/4 by 35 1/4 in.

The Connoisseur, March 1946;
M. Archer, India and British Portraiture 1770-1825, London 1979, p.306-8, pl.212

Arthur Tooth, London 1946-7;
Anonymous sale, Christie's London, 10th June 1997, lot 92 (bt. by the present owner)

William Sydenham was the son of Samuel Sydenham and his wife Alice Chapman, from Minehead near Exmoor. In 1768 he was commissioned as a Cadet in the East India Company's Madras Artillery, and in 1776 married his wife Amelia, the niece of General Horne, who had also served with the artillery in India. In 1786, during the war with the Tipu Sultan of Mysore, Sydenham was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in command of the 1st Battalion at St. Thomas's Mount near Fort St. George, Madras, which can be seen in the background of this painting. He was later promoted Major-General, Commandant of Artillery and Auditor-General of Fort St. George in January 1801, but sadly died in June of that year. The couple had two sons and a daughter, the eldest of whom, Benjamin, served in the Madras Engineers from 1794 to 1808 and became Secretary to Marquis Wellesley, when he was Governor-General of India.