Thread by @AndrewBrunatti

Castlereagh Creeping the House of Lords, or the Story of a Misidentified Portrait.

A 🧵

2 artists captured the proceedings against Queen Caroline in the #HouseofLords in 1820, and both include #ViscountCastlereagh. Let's start with James Stephanoff.

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Stephanoff shows Castlereagh perched on a staircase, watching from a small window. The 1823 key for Stephanoff's work identifies this figure as "The Marquis of Londonderry [Castlereagh], who usually took his station on the stairs leading to the gallery during the investigation."

The other portrayal of the trial is, of course, George Hayter's monumental painting. Hayter, however, shows Castlereagh positioned in the box of the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, on the bottom right corner.

The official key to Hayter's painting confirms the identity of this figure (No.184) as Castlereagh, leaning nonchalantly on his left elbow propping up his head with his hand. The key identifies the figure in the stairway window (No.147) as Charles Arbuthnot.

Interestingly, Hayter's original sketch for the painting doesn't include the box of the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod and, instead of Arbuthnot leaning through the stairway window, shows a figure framed by the window--similar to the way Castlereagh was portrayed by Stephanoff.

In fact, Hayter *did* originally portray Castlereagh in the stairway window.

The small portrait study shown here is included among Hayter's preliminary studies for the painting. It's found in the @NPGLondon collection but misidentified.

The study has a pencil notation on the left reading 'Mr Arbuthnot' which presumably led @NPGLondon to catalogue it as a portrait of Charles Arbuthnot. However, the notation directly below the study, in the same pen/wash as the main image, reads 'Left Side - for Ld Castlereagh.'

What is more, in this study the figure is leaning on his left elbow, propping up his head with his hand--a nonchalant pose which is very similar to the one in which Castlereagh is portrayed in the final painting.

So why would Hayter change Castlereagh's position in the composition? Possibly because the perspective of the chamber actually rendered the staircase window too narrow to have a figure's upper torso framed by the window as Hayter originally intended.

With this perspective issue, the only viable option to include a figure in the window space was to have them leaning *through* the window--an awkward solution, particularly when portraying a senior cabinet minister like Castlereagh.

So Hayter exercised creative license and found a more dignified but less accurate position for Castlereagh in the box of the Usher for the Black Rod, and replaced him in the stairway window with Arbuthnot. Not great for Arbuthnot, but c'est la vie.

This would also better explain the pencil notation on the study. The notation doesn't indicate that Arbuthnot is the subject of the study--it was Hayter subsequently noting his intent to *move* Arbuthnot into the window space.

The subject of Hayter's study is Castlereagh.

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