Charles Este (1696–1745), Bishop of Waterford

Charles Este served as Bishop of Waterford and Lismore from 1740 until his death in 1745, occupying a senior position in the Church of Ireland during the mid-eighteenth century. Jean-Baptiste van Loo painted this portrait around 1740, the year of Este's appointment to the see, suggesting the picture may have been commissioned to mark that elevation. The portrait is now at Christ Church Picture Gallery in Oxford, one of the significant institutional portrait collections in England. Van Loo's English clientele extended across the Anglican establishment, Whig political circles, and the aristocracy, and a bishop of the Established Church was a natural subject for the artist's formulaic but accomplished style. Este's relatively short episcopate and the limited historical record surrounding him make the portrait one of the primary documents of his career. Van Loo's ability to project authority and learning through the conventions of ecclesiastical portraiture served such institutional purposes efficiently.

Ecclesiastical dress — episcopal robes and the appropriate insignia of office — structures the composition and signals the sitter's rank clearly. Van Loo handles the deep purples and crimsons of clerical vestments with attention to their weight and lustre, contrasting them against the warm background and the lighter tones of the face. The brushwork is fluid and assured.