Thomas Pooley, English, 1646-1723
Title: Portrait of Sir John Perceval, 3rd Bt (1660-1686)
Date: c.1670-1674
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
77 x 63.8 cm
Credit Line: Purchased, 1996
Object Number: NGI.4627
DescriptionThis half-length portrait is one of three of a set of the Perceval brothers. All three brothers attended Christchurch College, Oxford, when this painting might have been painted. John was born in Egmont, County Cork, and in 1680 succeeded his eldest brother Robert to the baronetcy. Tragically, through presented as fresh faced, confident dandies in Pooley's portraits, all three brothers died young. Robert, a gambler and duellist, was murdered in the Strand, London, aged just twenty, while Philip was poisoned at the age of twenty-four, and John died at twenty-six of jail fever, contracted from prisoners. It is believed that the artist received some instruction in painting from Sir Peter Lely (1618-80). He arrived in Dublin in 1676 and became the principal painter of the Establishment for about the next twenty years.
Label TextSir John Perceval was born at Egmont, Co. Cork. In 1680 he succeeded his eldest brother Sir Philip, who had died childless. His second brother, Robert, a gambler and duellist, had been murdered three years earlier in the Strand, London. Sir John married in 1680 and returned to live in Ireland in 1682, reclaiming some of his father’s political offices. He was profligate, however, and quickly exhausted his inheritance. Like his brothers, he died young having contracted jail fever from prisoners while serving on the grand jury assizes in Cork.