John Michael Wright
This portrait was commissioned by Henry Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, for his portrait gallery. The sitter was a friend of Clarendon, and played a key role in the Restoration of King Charles II as one of the Regicide judges responsible for trying those who had sentenced Charles I to death.
Provenance
Commissioned by Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (1609-1674), for his gallery at Clarendon House, London; by descent to his son, Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon (1638-1709), at Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire; by descent, at Cornbury, and later The Grove, Hertfordshire, to his nephew, Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Rochester and later 4th Earl of Clarendon (1672-1753); transferred to his son, Henry Hyde, 5th Baron Hyde and Viscount Cornbury (1710-1753), in 1749, 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
Exhibitions
Cardiff, City Art Gallery, Portraits from Welsh Houses, 1948, no. 22
Literature
Lady T. Lewis, Lives of the Friends and Contemporaries of Lord Chancellor Clarendon, London 1852, Vol. III, no. 57, pp. 251 and 362; J. Steegman, Portraits in Welsh Houses, Cardiff 1962, Vol. II, no. 3, p. 19; R. Gibson, Catalogue of Portraits in the Collection of the Earl of Clarendon, Wallop 1977, no. 139, pp. 124-125