Charles William Vane-Stewart

This portrait of the dashing Charles William Stewart (later 3rd Marquess of Londonderry) is based on a portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence of which there are two versions – the ‘Camden’ portrait of 1812 (now in the National Portrait Gallery) and the ‘Londonderry’ portrait of 1814. It is the latter version that has inspired this 19th century copy in miniature showing Charles in the uniform of an Hussar with a fur-lined pelisse and busby hat wearing the Army Gold Medal awarded to him in 1810 following the Battle of Talavera when he served under the Duke of Wellington. Although retaining the swagger of the original image, the unknown copyist, in all probability working from a black & white engraving of the Lawrence portrait, has altered the colour of the Hussar’s uniform from red with gold braid to blue with silver braid.

The Lawrence portrait was painted at a turning point in Stewart’s career: having transitioned from the military to the diplomatic world, he was appointed Ambassador to Austria, a position he was to hold for nine years. The Prince Regent elevated him to Baron Stewart, made him a Lord of the Bedchamber and appointed him to the Privy Council. But, despite his illustrious military service, Stewart did not always live up to the romanticised image conveyed in this portrait. Indeed his indiscreet womanising, boorish and often inebriated behaviour together with his penchant for flashy dress (think bright yellow boots) earned him the nickname Lord Pumpernickel after a clownish theatrical character.

Charles married twice, adding his wealthy second wife’s surname to his own in 1819, as stipulated by his father-in-law’s will, to become Charles Vane. Through his Ulster-Scots father and his heiress wife, Vane inherited vast Irish and English estates but did not acquit himself well as a landlord especially during the Great Famine of the 1840s nor of his Co. Durham coal mines; indeed he vehemently opposed the Mines and Collieries Act of 1842 claiming his mines could not be profitable without the use of child labour.

Upon the death of his half-brother in 1822 Vane became Viscount Castlereagh and Marquess of Londonderry. Following his death in 1854 his legacy was honoured by an equestrian statue in Durham and by Scrabo Tower, a folly, commissioned by his brother and located near his Irish estate at Mount Stewart (now managed by the National Trust).

The portrait is presented in a later gilt wood frame.

Ivory Exemption Ref.: LF8N6C67