Display caption
Portrait of Sir Horace Mann, 1780
Hugh Douglas Hamilton (1740-1808)
Loaned to MCC by Lord Cornwallis, 1947
Pastel
TN.2009.2526
Full-length portrait of Sir Horace Mann (b.1706 d.1786) depicted gracefully posed delicately dangling a game bird at his gun dog.
Sir Horatio Mann, 2nd Baronet, was an English MP and member of the Hambledon Club in Hampshire. He established first-class matches on his estate in Bishopsbourne Paddock, which became a pioneering venue for cricket in the 1770s and 1780s. Friends with the 3rd Duke of Dorset, his activities can be traced through Arthur Haygarth’s Scores and Biographies
He was nephew of his namesake the British resident in Florence and successor to his baronetcy. Sir Horace is drawn by Irish artist Hugh Douglas Hamilton after he moved to Italy, where the artist painted a number of British grand tourists. It is in keeping with traits of early sixteenth century Italian portraits by court artists who set a fashion for expressing courtly manners by drawing their sitters with elegance, seen as a desirable quality for upper class men.
