Code: 11508
Dimensions:
Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden (1714-1794)
After Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. (1723-1792)
Engraved by Simon-François Ravenet (1706 – 1774)
Etching and line engraving
Proof before final lettering
Published Boydell, London 1766
On paper
Measures:-
Sheet: 50.6 cm x 35.2 cm (approx)
Framed: 70 cm high x 55 cm wide
Lettered beneath the image within a rococo cartouche:-
"Hanc Iconem / Caroli Pratt Eq. / summi judicis C.B. / in honorem tanti viri / Anglicae libertatis lege assertoris fidi / S.P.Q.L. / in curia municipali / Poni jusserunt / nono kal Mar. A.D. MDCCLXIV. / Gulielmo Bridgen Ar. Prae. Urb."
with the artist's and publisher's details pricked out before final engraving: "J.Reynolds Pinxt", "Jno. Boydell Exect 1766" , "S. F. Ravenet Sculpt." and (very faint) either side of the cartouche "Publish'd Augt. 12th 1766 by J. Boydell / Engraver in Cheapside, London ~".
Portrait full-length, standing slightly turned to right, eyes to front, wearing robes, with his right arm leaning on back of an armchair to left, left hand upon an upright volume to the right of the image, propped on a carpet covered table with inkstand and quill, further volumes beneath. Column and billowing drapery to left and above and clouds behind.
Charles Pratt was the son of a distinguished lawyer and his mother was an aunt of the landscape painter Richard Wilson. He was educated at Eton (where he was friends with with William Pitt Sr.) and King's College Cambridge. He followed his father into the legal profession profession, entering the Middle Temple in 1728. He became a champion of free speech and a leading supporter of civil liberties. He was appointed King's Counsel in 1755, and knighted in December 1761. He served in the cabinet for fifteen years, under five different prime ministers and was, successively, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Attorney-General and Lord Chancellor.
As Lord Chief Justice he acquitted John Wilkes of seditious libel, arguing that general warrants were illegal; and he opposed taxation without representation, a key quarrel in the American Revolution. This stance ultimately led to his dismissal as Lord Chancellor. He was created 1st Earl Camden in 1786 and from 1791 began to develop the lay-out of a residential district on a manor in Kentish Town, north London, which had belonged to his wife and which would, ultimately, bear his name.
For similar proof impression see BM 1838,0714.54
