Richard Rothwell, 1800-1868 The Rt Hon William Huskisson, Mp 1770-1830

Richard Rothwell, 1800-1868

The Rt Hon William Huskisson, MP 1770-1830

oil on canvas

30 x 25 in. (76 x 64 cm.)

Provenance : Lord Egremont

There are 3 known portraits by Rothwell of William Huskisson, one is in the National Portrait Gallery, London, the other is in the Parliamentary Works of Art Collection, Westminster and the third is this newly discovered portrait. This portrait is partially unfinished and is likely to be the portrait mentioned in the National Portrait Galleries archives as being commissioned for Lord Egremont but it remained unfinished. The artist Richard Rothwell wrote that the first version of this portrait 'was so successful a likeness that it gave much pleasure to the friends of the lamented statesman'.

William Huskisson, (1770–1830), politician, was born on 11 March 1770 at Birtsmorton Court, Worcestershire, the eldest of four sons of William Huskisson (1743–1790), gentleman, and his first wife, Elizabeth (c.1743–1774), who was daughter of John Rotton of Oxley, Staffordshire, and his wife, Jane. Thomas Huskisson (1784–1844) was his half-brother. As a young boy Huskisson was sent away to school, in turn to Brewood, in Staffordshire; Albrighton, in Shropshire; and Appleby, in Leicestershire. Following his father's second marriage he was sent in 1783, with his brother Richard, to be educated by their mother's uncle, Richard Gem, who had settled as a doctor in Paris in 1762. Under his guidance Huskisson received an unorthodox education which would later mark him out from his political colleagues. For Gem's friends included the freethinking Baron d'Holbach and other philosophers, as well as Franklin and Jefferson. In the light of subsequent ultra-tory charges that he had been a Jacobin, Huskisson prudently claimed that his ideas had been formed in England. But it is difficult to believe that he was untouched by the intellectual currents of late Enlightenment France. He witnessed the fall of the Bastille, was an early critic of Burke's ‘strange romantic doctrines’ (Melville, 9), and was befriended by the radical poet William Hayley. He made his first public mark as a member of the liberal Société de 1789, contributing in August 1790 a strong criticism of the new French paper currency. The leading light in this club was Condorcet, at whose home Talleyrand claimed Huskisson learned his system of public economy, while it was less credibly rumoured that Madame Condorcet taught him the arts of love. Huskisson's political outlook, albeit subsequently modulated by other influences, retained much in common with that of the French school of political economy of Turgot, Say, and the Idéologues. More importantly for his immediate political career, in late 1790 Huskisson became private secretary to the British ambassador, Earl Gower, sharing intimately in the événements of the early revolution before returning to London in September 1792, after Britain severed diplomatic relations with France.

Under the patronage of Gower, Huskisson was introduced to Pitt and Dundas. His grasp of French as well as his administrative promise led to his appointment as superintendent of the aliens office in January 1793, overseeing arrangements for the influx of French émigrés and helping to set up Britain's modern secret service. In July 1794 Huskisson moved with Dundas and Nepean to the War Office, where he became chief clerk. He had impressed his seniors so much that when Nepean subsequently moved to the Admiralty he was able to lay claim to his post as under-secretary in March 1795, a remarkable promotion for a 24-year-old recommended by talent rather than by pedigree. In 1796, through Gower's friend the earl of Carlisle, Huskisson was elected to parliament for Morpeth. It was also at Gower's Wimbledon home that Huskisson first met Canning, forming a strong personal attachment that became the lodestar of his late