Orlando (1762–1825), 1st Earl of Bradford of the Second Creation

Orlando Bridgeman, 1st Earl of Bradford of the second creation, served as a Tory politician in the late Georgian period. This portrait at Weston Park was painted by Hayter around 1832, likely as a posthumous likeness based on earlier sources since the Earl had died in 1825. The Bridgeman family’s extensive patronage of Hayter made the artist practically a house painter to the Bradford earldom. 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 probable posthumous nature of the portrait may account for a slightly more formal, less spontaneous quality than Hayter’s life studies. The handling of costume and features is competent and dignified.