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| Title | Councillor Thomas Atwood Junior | |
| Alternative Title | Thomas Atwood II | |
| Collection | Victoria Art Gallery, Bath | |
| Artist | Diest, Johan van (Dutch painter, act. c.1700) | |
| Date | 1728 (dated) | |
| Description | This work was one of thirty portraits of Bath councillors which General Wade commissioned from Van Diest. It is a three-quarter length portrait of a gentleman of around thirty to forty years of age, with dark hair (or wig). The councillor is depicted standing and is attired in a dark brown coat and waistcoat, and a black gown, the tail of which he holds in his right hand; he holds a black hat in his left hand. | |
| Current Accession Number | BATVG:P:1984.11 | |
| Subject | portrait (Thomas Atwood Junior) | |
| Measurements | 123 x 101.5 cm (estimate) | |
| Material | oil on canvas | |
| Acquisition Details | Transferred from Bath City Council 1984. | |
| Provenance | Commissioned from the artist by General George Wade MP 1728; given to Bath Corporation by General Wade 1728. | |
| Publications | Corporation Pictures: Stranger's Guide, 1775, p. 45; Farwell, Busts in the Guildhall, Bath, 1907, pp. 11-12; Exhibition of Works by the Old Bath Artists, Bath, 1903, p. 9, cat. 13; Sloman, S., ‘General Wade's altar-piece for Bath Abbey: a reconstruction', The Burlington Magazine, CXXXIII, August 1991, pp. 507-10, ill. p. 509; Sloman, S., Victoria Art Gallery: Concise Catalogue of Paintings and Drawings, Bath, 1991, p. 109; Catalogue of Paintings at Guildhall, The Assembly Rooms and Pump Room, Bath, Bath Museums Service, Bath, 1985, p. 8, cat. no. 13. | |
| Notes | In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Atwoods were a prominent Bath family of tradesmen. Thomas Atwood II ( ‘Junior' until 1732, after which he was known as ‘Senior'), was elected Common Councilman of the city of Bath in 1717, he was appointed Alderman in 1733, and Mayor in 1735, 1746 and 1752. The present identifications of the councillors may not be correct in all cases. Some sources, Sloman (1991) and Catalogue of Paintings at Guildhall (1985), state or imply that this work represents Thomas Atwood III (1709-70), but this seems unlikely as he would have been just 19 years of age at the date of the portrait, whereas the sitter appears more mature. Moreover, Thomas Atwood III did not enter the city council until 1732. On the other hand, the older Thomas Atwood II was already a councillor in 1728. This work was one of thirty portraits of Bath councillors which General Wade commissioned from van Diest, of which eight survive (1984.9-15 and 1986.1), as well as the portrait of General Wade commissioned by the council (1984.16). According to old sources, in the period 1766-c1850 the pictures languished forgotten in a lumber room following the demolition of the old Guildhall, and this is when many were apparently stolen or ruined. General George Wade MP commissioned the portraits of thirty Bath councillors from Johan van Diest and presented them to the city of Bath. Council minutes of December 12, 1728, record the resolution ‘by general consent that a Letter shall be sent to General Wade to return him thanks for the Pictures he had presented this Corporation'. The councillor portraits and a high altar-piece for Bath Abbey, which Wade also commissioned from Diest, established Wade as a major benefactor of the city. George Wade (1673-1748) distinguished himself serving in Flanders and Spain. He was promoted to major general (1714), lieutenant-general (1727), field marshal (1743), and finally English commander-in-chief (1745). He engaged in anti-Jacobite activities in Bath in 1715. Wade served as Member of Parliament for Bath from 1722 until his death in 1748. In the early 1720s he built a town house there overlooking the abbey, and also commissioned a London residence from Lord Burlington, modelled on a drawing by Palladio. Between 1724 and 1726 at the command of George I, Wade planned and supervised road-building in the Scottish highlands.One of the councillor portraits was included in the 1903 Victoria Art Gallery exhibition, Exhibition of Works by the Old Bath Artists, cat. 13. The sitter was identified as ‘probably ..John Billings', which does not correspond with any of the current identifications. |
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| Rights Owner | Victoria Art Gallery, Bath | |
| Author | Dr Susan Steer | |