The sitter, John William Hippisley-Trenchard, was the eldest child of Robert Hippisley-Trenchard (1715-1787) of Stanton and Mary (d.1788), daughter of John Gore of Salisbury. Born in 1740, the year of his parent’s marriage, he grew up in Wiltshire eventually inheriting the family estates of Stanton, Cutteridge and Abbots Leigh. A country gentleman of some wealth, he never married and the estates passed to his two nephews when he died in 1801.

The present portrait passed by descent at Stanton House and first came on to the art market in 1937, just a few years after the sale and tragic demolition of the family mansion. Charles Bestland is better known as a miniaturist and large oil portraits by him are scarce. The present painting is the earliest known work by him on this scale; the style and manner is similar to that of Ozias Humphrey, another well known miniaturist who occasionally worked in oils. The fact that they were both exhibiting at the Royal Academy around the same time indicates that the young Bestland was probably not only familiar with Humphrey’s work but may have been quite a close friend. Furthermore, the sitter was undoubtedly known to both men as Humphrey executed a painting of him in 1790 and Bestland engraved an image of another Trenchard ancestor around the same time.

Charles Bestland was a talented young artist entering the Royal Academy Schools in March 1779 aged ’16 next April’. He enjoyed a successful practice and exhibited at the R.A. from 1783 until his death. Examples of his work can be found in London at the British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum, whilst his only known oil portraits appear to be in private collections.

Literature: Sir Ellis Waterhouse ‘The Dictionary of 18th century Painters’, 1981, the present portrait cited p. 52