The Reverend Robert Sherard (1712–1799), 4th Earl of Harborough

The Reverend Robert Sherard, 4th Earl of Harborough — an aristocrat who also held Anglican holy orders — represented the pluralism of the Georgian church, where noblemen and their families sometimes held clerical appointments as part of the broader management of family interests and patrimony. Gainsborough's portrait at the Government Art Collection, painted around 1770 in a large format of 223.5 by 142 centimeters, navigates the formal requirements of both ecclesiastical and noble portraiture: the clerical dress signals the spiritual office while the full-length scale and easy bearing assert aristocratic authority. The Government Art Collection holds portraits used to decorate official government buildings across Britain — the portrait's presence there suggests it was acquired as a document of the Georgian establishment rather than as personal family property. Gainsborough's mature Bath manner is particularly appropriate for this complex sitter: his light, natural approach avoids the stiff ceremonialism that a more conventional portrait formula might have imposed on a man whose double identity required careful social navigation. The contemporary viewer would have read both clerical and noble registers simultaneously, understanding the work's meaning through the compound identity it depicted.

The dual identity of the sitter is reflected in a portrait that combines the gravitas of an earl with the sobriety of a clergyman. Gainsborough's warm, direct handling gives life to the face, while the dark costume is treated with the confident economy of his mature Bath period manner.