Sir William Beechey

Thomas Law Hodges

?exhibited 1795

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In Tate Britain

Walk Through British Art: 1780

Free entry

Artist: Sir William Beechey 1753–1839
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 765 x 635 mm
frame: 948 x 820 x 75 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Bequeathed by Sir Edward Stern 1933
Reference: N04688

Display caption

Thomas Law Hodges (1776–1857) of Hemsted Place, Cranbrook, Kent, was for many years a Member of Parliament for that county. An old inscription on the back states that the sitter is 18 years old. This would date the picture to 1794, so that it is probably the portrait of ‘Mr Hodges’ which Beechey exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1795. Hodges’s family were long-established as landowners in Dorset and Gloucestershire. He had a privileged upbringing, educated at Harrow and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was admitted in 1794, perhaps the occasion for this portrait being made.

Gallery label, February 2016

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Catalogue entry

N04688 THOMAS LAW HODGES ?exh. 1795

Inscribed ‘Tho^s. Law Hodges/Ætat:suae 18/Painted by Sir Wil^m Beechey’ in old hand on stretcher
Oil on canvas, 30 1/8 × 25 3/16 (76.5 × 64.0)
Bequeathed by Sir Edward Stern to the National Gallery, with life interest to his widow, 1933. Transferred to the Tate Gallery 1979
Prov: ...; Agnew's; with donor by 1902.
Exh: ?R.A. 1795 (214); Burlington Fine Arts Club 1902 (52); Spring Exhibition, Whitechapel Gallery, 1907 (78), inexplicably ascribed to J.L. David.
Lit: W. Roberts, Sir William Beechey R.A., 1907, p.48; Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues, The British School, 1946, p.8.

Thomas Hodges (1776–1857) of Hemsted Place, Cranbrook, Kent, was for many years M.P. for that country. His age of 18 would date the picture to 1794, so that it is probably that the ‘Mr Hodges’ which Beechey exhibited at the R.A. in 1795 was this picture. (Roberts, op. cit., suggests that the R.A. picture may have been a portrait of William Hodges the painter, but there is no record that Beechey ever painted him). Its good condition, strong likeness and vigorous rendering of youthful vitality makes this one of Beechey's best male portraits.

Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1978-80: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1981