Porträt Henry Boyle, 1. Baron Carleton (1669-1725)

Portrait of Henry Boyle, 1st Baron Carleton. The Anglo-Irish politician is shown here as a chest image to the left. He turned his head to the right and his gaze patterns the viewer. His clothes with Jabot seem noble and he wears a long, curly wig. The effigy is framed in an oval, very plastic cartouche, in the inner edge of which an inscription is incorporated. In front of this cartouche there is an elaborate recess on which several bags of coins lie and a royal scepter leans, which refers to his work as finance minister in the English parliament. Henry Boyle was the son of Charles Boyle, his brother was a patron Georg Friedrich Händels, Richard Boyle, of whom there is also a leaf in the Händel House Foundation. He received his education at Westminster School and Trinity College. He then joined the British army, but quickly left it again. He spent several years on his Irish family goods before embarking on politics. In 1701, for example, he became Finance Minister of England. In 1714 he was elevated to the noble estate. The leaf was engraved as a copper engraving by Jacobus Houbraken (1698-1780) in 1740. As a template he used a painting by the English painter Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723), which he created in 1703. It is now situated in Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire. The paper was printed by Paul and John Knapton in London in 1741. Thereafter it was published in the publication “The Heads of Illustrious Persons of Great Britain” by Thomas Birch in London in 1747. The British Museum in London has a specimen of the leaf, the National Portrai Gallery has four specimens. Signature: Kneller pinxit. J. Houbraken sculp. Amst. 1740. In the Collection of the Right Hon: the Earl of Burlington. Impensis I. & P. Knapton Londini 1741. Caption: [Cartouche] Henry Boyle Lord Carleton. (Stiftung Händel-Haus Halle Foundation)