Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland R.A. (1735-1811, English)
Portrait of Sir Lawrence Dundas
Oil on canvas
50 x 40 inches (127 x 101 cm)
Wood carved and gilded 18th century frame
Price: £21,000 GBP
Provenance:
Christie's South Kensington: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 [Lot 00143]
Old Masters & British Paintings
The Dundas family of Perthshire, Scotland owed their return prosperity to Thomas Dundas (1681-1762) a woollen-draper, who through his successful business bought back the family estate in Fingask, Perthshire.
This property and much of the family’s wealth had been confiscated earlier in the seventeenth century, when the family switched loyalties from the Stuarts to Charles I. Thomas married Bethia Baillie (fl.1686-1732) whose brother was abbot of St James’s at Rattisbon in Bavaria.
Lawrence was the second of two children born to Thomas and Bethia, in 1721. In 1738 Lawrence married Margaret (1715/16-1802) daughter of Alexander Bruce of Kennet, Clackmannanshire. They had only one child, a son Thomas (1741-1820), named after his grandfather and father’s older brother.
Dundas’s rapid rise to wealth reminds us that the East India Company was only one of many militaristic routes to fortune in eighteenth century Britain. Lawrence Dundas made his first fortune as a merchant contractor supplying goods (such as bread, forage, horses and waggons) to the British Army during their campaign against the Jacobites in 1745. These contracts made him a man of wealth. However his great opportunity came during the Seven Years War (1756-1763), when he secured even greater contracts. James Boswell’s claim that Dundas would ‘bring home a couple of hundred thousand pounds’ underestimated the scale of the profits, which others have put at between £600,000 to £800,000. The final sums were rumoured to involve nearly £2 million. Dundas engaged in contracting on his own, something that required confidence as well as resources, and his refusal to share profits earned him many enemies.
Lawrence Dundas subsequently branched out into banking, property and was a major backer of the Forth and Clyde Canal which ran through his estate at Kerse near Falkirk. Associated with the Canal was the port at Grangemouth which Dundas founded in 1768. He was a Director of the Royal Bank of Scotland, had shares in the British Plate Glass Manufactory, invested money in private loans and shipping ventures, and owned two sugar estates in the West Indies, one in Dominica and the other in Grenada.
Serving as MP for Lanark Burghs from 1747-1748, and then as MP for Edinburgh in 1768, 1774 and in the year of his death in 1781, Lawrence Dundas established himself at the head of a small parliamentary group of relatives and friends whose support was useful for the Prime Minister, Lord North (1732-1792).
Nathaniel Dance-Holland
Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland, 1st Baronet RA (8 May 1735 – 15 October 1811) was a notable English portrait painter and later a politician. The third son of architect George Dance the Elder, Dance (he added the 'Holland' suffix later in life) studied art under Francis Hayman, and like many contemporaries also studied in Italy. There he met Angelica Kauffman, and painted several historic and classical paintings.
On his return to England, he became a successful portrait painter. With Hayman and his architect brother George Dance the Younger, he was one of the founder members of the Royal Academy in 1768. He was commissioned to paint King George III and his queen, plus Captain James Cook and actor David Garrick. His group portrait The Pybus Family (1769) is in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.
In 1790, he gave up his artistic career and became Member of Parliament for East Grinstead in Sussex. He served this seat until 1802 when he moved to Great Bedwyn, serving until 1806. In 1807 he returned to East Grinstead, serving until his death in 1811. He was made a baronet in 1800, which became extinct upon his death.