Sir Thomas Gladstone of Fasque

Sir Thomas Gladstone of Fasque was the elder brother of the future Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone. Hayter painted him in 1833 for the parliamentary project, and the portrait remains in the Parliamentary Art Collection. The Gladstone family’s rise from Liverpool commerce to landed gentry at Fasque Castle in Kincardineshire exemplified the social mobility that was reshaping British politics in the reform era. George Hayter was the preeminent British history and portrait painter of the early Victorian era, appointed Principal Painter in Ordinary to Queen Victoria in 1841.

The family resemblance to the more famous younger brother is discernible in the strong features and serious expression. Hayter’s rapid portrait technique captures the elder Gladstone’s air of Scottish Presbyterian rectitude.