Henry William Beechey - Portrait of Sir John Wodehouse (1785)

Caption from the auctioneers website



The sitter was the son of Sir Armine Wodehouse and Letitia Bacon. In 1784 he was selected as candidate for Great Yarmouth but withdrew after a canvass. In 1769 he married Sophia Berkeley, daughter of Hon. Charles Berkeley of Bruton Abbey, Somerset with whom he had seven children. In 1797 he was created Baron Wodehouse of Kimberley. The commission of this portrait no doubt arose from the presence of Sir William Beechey in Norwich between 1781 and 1785. Although Beechey had only intended to spend a month in the city, an abundance of appointments and invitations to visit Lord Orford at Houghton Hall (where he met Fuseli and Cipriani) induced him to extend his stay.