_-_Welbore_Ellis_(1713%E2%80%931802)%2C_Baron_Mendip_-_LP_197_-_Christ_Church.jpg&width=1200)
Welbore Ellis (1713–1802), Baron Mendip
Thomas Gainsborough·1769
Historical Context
Gainsborough's Welbore Ellis, Baron Mendip of around 1769 depicts the politician who served as Secretary at War and later Secretary of State for the American Department during the American Revolutionary War — a man whose ministry contributed directly to the policies that provoked the colonial revolt. Ellis represented the conservative Tory establishment whose approach to American governance proved catastrophic, and Gainsborough's portrait captures his formal authority without suggesting the political misjudgment that defined his public career.
Technical Analysis
Gainsborough paints the politician with the composed authority of a man accustomed to public life. The handling is typical of his mature Bath period, with the dark political costume providing a sober frame for the warmly modelled face and its expression of worldly experience.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice Welbore Ellis's connection to the American colonies: he served as Secretary of State for the American Department during the Revolutionary War, and Gainsborough captured him with the formal authority of a man accustomed to public life.
- ◆Look at the composed authority of the face: the political experience of a man who managed catastrophic American colonial policy shows in the expression.
- ◆Observe the dark political costume providing a sober frame: Gainsborough's standard formula for male politicians uses dark tones to focus on the face.
- ◆Find the historical irony: the portrait of a man whose policies helped provoke American independence carries no visible trace of that political misjudgment.
_MET_DP162180.jpg&width=600)
