Description

Oil on canvas in fine quality 17th c. carved and giltwood oakleaf frame, bearing label "Hugh Cholmley of West Newton Grange. 16*4. Thomas Murray".
SIR HUGH CHOLMLEY (Cholmeley) 4th Bt. {1632-1690} of West Newton Grange, Yorkshire.
Born at Fyling Hall, near Whitby, Yorkshire, he was the son of Sir Hugh Cholmley, 1st Bt. and Elizabeth Twysden.
[ Sir Hugh, the first baronet, was born in 1600 in Roxby, Yorkshire. During the Civil War in 1643, as a general, he fought for Parliament before transfering his allegiance to the Royalist cause and became Governor of Scarborough Castle.]
The sitter in this portrait, Sir Hugh Cholmley, 4th Bt., married Lady Anne Compton, daughter of Spencer Compton, 2nd Earl of Northampton and Lady Mary Beaumont in 1665/6 at Hamerton, Huntingdonshire. He held the office of Governor of Tangiers, Morocco in 1665, succeeding to the baronetcy in July 1665. He was M.P. for Northampton in 1679, and M.P. for Thirsk from 1685 to 1687. He died, aged 56, at Whitby, Yorkshire.
THOMAS MURRAY (1663-1735). Born perhaps in Scotland, he was a pupil of Riley, but his better portraits, those before 1700, are very much like Closterman. He was very successful; he died rich in London in 1735.
SIZE: 38 x 33 inches inc. frame.
PROVENANCE: by descent to Piers Henry Augustus Butler, 16th Viscount Mountgarret died 1966; sold by his Will Chattels Trust in December 2010.
Prior to the sale the portrait was on long term loan to Bradford Corporation Art Gallery.
Tong Hall was one of the Tempest family's properties for 400 years until 1941.
Sir John Tempest, 1st Bt, born 1645, married Henrietta Cholmley of West Newton Grange, daughter of the sitter in this portrait, in c.1663/4.
The 13th Viscount Mountgarret married Francis Penelope Plumbe-Tempest of Tong Hall in 1844; thus the portrait of Sir Hugh Cholmley was acquired by the Mountgarrets.
VERSO: old printed label:-
"City of Bradford Corporation Art Gallery.
Cartwright Memorial Hall.
TONG HALL.
Loan number 188."
Indistinct 19th c. handwritten label:-
"**** Tempest, ***** of Ann Tempest of Tong
by Mary Tempest of Broughton(?)"
Internal Ref: 8552