Portrait of a gentleman, half length, believed to be Charles Jennens (1700-1773) in brown, in a feigned ovaloil on canvas laid down to board, in a fine period carved and giltwood frame73.5 x 61cmProvenance: By descent from the presumed sitter to his sister Elizabeth Hanmer (1705-1777) through the male line of her only daughter Esther, Viscountess Curzon (d. 1764) and subsequently the Earls Howe at Gopsall Hall, Leicestershire until 1918,Sale on the premises at Gopsall Hall, Messrs. Trollope, 5th Day of Sale, 21st October 1918, presumably lot 1191, as 'Godfrey Kneller, A half-length portrait of a gentleman wearing a wig and light coat and vest, within an oval (canvas 29.5 x 24in)';By 1935 in a private collection (as by Kneller) - see illustrationWe are grateful to Dr Brian Allen for proposing this is a portrait of Charles Jennens on the basis of the close facial resemblance to the 1771 Mason Chamberlin portrait of him (see below) which is supported by its descent at Gopsall until 1918 (see Provenance).Charles Jennens (1700-1773) was the grandson of Sir Humphrey Jennens (1629-1690) of Erdington in Warwickshire, who had made his fortune as an ironmaster. Jennens - whose father, also Charles (1662-1747) had married Elizabeth Burdett - was brought up at Gopsall Hall in Leicestershire which had been built in the Jacobean style. When a cousin William Jennens (1701-1798) died intestate he left in today’s money in excess of £250 million and Charles himself was to become one of the richest commoners in England. It was at Balliol College, Oxford where Jennens’ lifelong interest in literature and music was formed. Though a devout Protestant, he was unwilling to swear allegiance to the Hanoverians whilst the descendants of King James II were still alive and as a consequence, he never held any public office. Instead, he indulged his wide interests and used his vast wealth to form one of the best collections of Old Master and contemporary British paintings in Britain for the great Palladian mansion he rebuilt at Gopsall (demolished 1951). For his largesse and extravagance Jennens was known as Suleyman the Magnificent after the 16th century Ottoman sultan. It is however as a patron of music that Charles Jennens is best known today, particularly of Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759). Their friendship was such that they collaborated on libretti for many works, including Saul, Belshazzar, L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, but most notably Jennens wrote the text for the Messiah, first performed in Dublin in 1742. Jennens commissioned the great portrait of Händel by Thomas Hudson that like the present painting descended in the Curzon family, but has since 1968 been in the National Portrait Gallery, London. Jennens’ huge musical library including hundreds of manuscripts of Händel’s music was left to his first cousin once removed Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Aylesford (1715-1777) which is today preserved in the Watson Music Library in Manchester. Jennens also commenced the first critical edition of Shakespeare’s works and carried on an extensive correspondence with the classical scholar Edward Holdsworth (1684-1746) in whose memory he erected an Ionic temple at Gopsall.An old label (see illustration) still affixed to the reverse of the painting indicates that it seems to have remained at Gopsall with the descendants of the sitter’s sister until the sale of the house and estate in 1918 to Samuel James Waring. A sale of some of the contents took place at Gopsall over eleven days by Messrs. Trollope in October 1918. Only four other portraits of Jennens are known – one of him three-quarter length seated by Mason Chamberlin of 1771 now in the Gerald Coke Handel Collection at the Foundling Hospital Museum; one by Nathaniel Dance in a private collection; and one by Hudson of him three-quarter length standing that was sold in Sotheby’s in 1997 and is now in the Handel House Museum. The fourth and earliest, dated 1747 and also by Hudson, is in a private collection. The present work, probably of Jennens towards the end of his life circa 1765-70, is possibly the most informal and intimate of the known portraits of this extraordinary man and polymath to whom the world of music in particular is so indebted. At his death, his fortune and most of his property passed to his sister Elizabeth Hanmer (1705-1777) whose daughter Esther (d. 1764) married Assheton Curzon, 1st Viscount Curzon of Penn (1730-1820) on 21st February 1756. Framed 97 x 84cmThe painting is executed in oil on a canvas support which has been laid onto a piece of hardboard. The picture is well adhered and in plane. The paint layers are in a stable condition overall. There is a network of age cracks which are slightly raised, but sound. Overpaint is mainly located on old areas of damage in the background which have been crudely repaired. Residues of old varnish and dirt are present in the texture of the brushstrokes. The varnish is even and semi-glossy with a layer of dirt across the surface including fly spots.