John Russell (Guildford 1745-1806 Hull)
Portrait of Colonel Thornton with a hawk
pastel
59.5 x 44.1cm (23 7/16 x 17 3/8in).
Footnotes:
Provenance
Private Collection, UK

Literature
N. Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, online version, J.64.2805-2809 (for the other versions)

Russell exhibited a pastel portrait of Thornton with his hawk at the Royal Academy in 1786, no. 155, and it was subsequently engraved for the frontispiece of Thornton's book of 1806, A sporting tour through various parts of France. Russell clearly had some success with it since an oval version was recorded in the collection of Lord Rosebery and a painted oval at Castle Howard; two further versions in miniature on ivory are also recorded. The present hitherto-unknown pastel is arguably the strongest of them all.

Thomas Thornton (1750?-1823) is thought to have been born in 1750 which would have made him 36 at the time of this portrait. He was famous for being one of the most enthusiastic and flamboyant sportsmen of the 18th and 19th centuries, dividing his time between hunting, racing, shooting, angling and hawking. In the shooting field he was certainly the best equipped - in his words he had 'a greater quantity of sporting apparatus of the most valuable and curious manufacture than any other sporting gentleman in England.' He was something of a legend in his own time, as well known as a bon viveur with a legion of mistresses as he was as a sportsman and collector.

Thornton inherited Thornville Royal estate in Yorkshire, but his exuberant lifestyle, which involved keeping two London houses as well as his country seat, taxed his finances and he was eventually forced to sell his estates. Contemporary records chart the progress south of his considerable belongings and retinue after the sale of the Yorkshire property: this included grooms, huntsmen, falconers, kennel-hands and servants, travelling by horse and attended by hounds, following a chain of wagons containing his prize animals. In addition to the live cargo was 'a fantastic arsenal of sporting weapons drawn by Arab mares of the King's stud. The procession was completed by several wagon-loads of wine.'

A francophile, Thornton visited France with his mistress before the Revolution and again in 1802 on a sporting trip. It seems probable that while in France, Thornton sought the support of the First Consul, Napoleon Bonaparte, over the circumstances of his court-martial in a bid to regain his reputation. He used the gift of a fine pair of pistols as his introduction. In his Sporting Tour Through France Thornton records 'I was favoured with a letter from General Duroc, containing the thanks of the First Consul for the pistols, which had been very graciously accepted.' One of the pair of gold-inlaid pistols presented by Thornton to Napoleon Bonaparte was sold by Bonhams London, 6 April 2006, lot 396.

Following the sale of his estates Thornton leased Spye Park in Wiltshire in 1805 from the Bayntun family. He wanted to replace the Bayntun family portraits with sporting paintings of his own, and commissioned a number of large-scale works from the best sporting artists of the day such as Reinagle, Gilpin and Henry Bernard Chalon. Thornton moved to France during the second decade of the 19th century and in 1819-20 his very substantial art collection – which included works by significant Old Masters – was auctioned off to settle his debts.


We are grateful to Neil Jeffares for confirming the attribution to John Russell, upon inspection of colour photographs.