Ewbank Clarke Gammon Wellers Auctioneers
Lot 666
Sir Francis Grant, 1803-1878, full length portrait of Lt Colonel Joseph Walker Pease 1820-1882 of Hesslewood, late MP for Hull and Lt Col of the First East Yorkshire Rifle Volunteers, oil on canvas, 84" x 50". A plaque beneath the portrait reads, "Presented to Joseph Walker Pease of Hesslewood JP DL Lt Col of The First East Yorkshire Rifle Volunteers late MP by his friends in Hull and neighbourhood in recognition of the great services rendered by him to the Conservative cause. Sir Francis Grant RA". On the back of the picture there is an invitation to Sir Francis Grant to attend a dinner at the Haberdashers Company on 18th June 1873 "to meet his royal highness Prince Arthur". On the back of this card there is an hand written inscription similar to the plaque. Francis Grant was a self-taught painter, who after a slow start first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1834, with a sporting picture. A succession of other sporting pictures followed, before he became established as a successful portrait painter. He became highly fashionable and his subjects included The Queen, Palmerston, and many other well-known people. Grant became ARA in 1842, and RA in 1851. In 1866, on the death of Charles Eastlake PRA, Edwin Landseer was offered the Presidency of the Royal Academy. He turned this down, and Grant was then elected and was knighted soon afterwards. Under Grant`s leadership, the Royal Academy moved from the National Gallery to Burlington House. It was also under Grant that the Chantry Bequest fund was set up. There is a very similar full length portrait of General Sir James Hope Grant, the artist`s brother in the National Gallery of Scotland and there are approximately 20 paintings by or attributed to Grant in the National Portrait Gallery. There are also four paintings in the Royal Collection. THE SITTER; Lt Col Joseph Walker Pease 1820-1882 According to an obituary in the Hull Daily Mail, Colonel Pease was born in Hull in 1820 , the son of Joseph Robinson Pease. He was educated at Rugby, after which he joined his father`s bank. He married Barbara Catherine Palmer, of Withcote Hall, Leicestershire, and after displaying an early interest in public affairs, was elected chairman of the Conservative party in Hull retaining the position until 1879. In 1857, he became chairman of the Hull and Withernsea Railway Company and played a leading part in the restoration of Withernsea Church. In 1858, he was elected to the board of the Hull Dock Company and was subsequently appointed its chairman, a position he held until his death. The following year, he took an active part in the establishment of the East Yorkshire Rifle Volunteers, joining it as a captain. He achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel, a position he retained until he retired in 1876. During this time he was also chairman of the committee which carried out the restoration of Holy Trinity Church in the city. Col Pease was also a Justice of the Peace, a deputy-lieutenant of the East Riding, a director of the Yorkshire Insurance Company and for many years chairman of the Hull Charity Trustees. In 1873, Col Pease won a by-election for the Conservative Party. He failed to be returned in a general election the following year but in recognition of his zealous efforts to retain the seat, the party paid his election expenses and he was also presented with a full-size portrait - believed to be the one to be sold by Ewbank - in oil in a ceremony at the Royal Institution. In a separate presentation, the Conservative working men presented him with a magnificent silver epergne inscribed "Presented to Lt-Col Pease, JP, DL by the Conservative working men of Kingston-upon-Hull as a testimony of their high esteem and respect for his honourable and upright character in their appreciation of the great services rendered by him to the Conservative cause. Hull, April 1874". He died in 1882, aged 63. This painting has been in store for nearly a quarter of a century. "We are grateful to Hull City Library for their help in cataloguing this lot".
![* Eton Reminiscences. A photograph album titled Eton Reminiscences, APB [Sir Alleyne Percival Boxall, 1882-1945], 1895-1901,](http://lot-images.atgmedia.com/SR/10729/2773318/58_468x382.jpg)
