Portrait of John Manners later 7th Duke of Rutland

Margaret Sarah Carpenter 1793-1872, was an English portrait painter. She was one of the foremost portrait painters in the 19th Century, she exhibited at the Royal Academy, British Institution and the Suffolk Steet Gallery. She also painted over 100 Eton School leavers portraits of which this is one, they were mostly painted on Davey panels, this picture bears the stamp of Davey which would have been from 83 Newman Street London. There is another portrait of John Manners which was painted later and the image of him carrying a shotgun, the conclusion to the research regarding this painting is that Carpenter's painting was too realistic and probably not to the clients liking and consequently another painting was commissioned, hence the shotgun image, which we believe to be out of keeping with a school portrait. The picture was discovered in Sussex and the research conclusion is that it was once the property of Bernard Cecil Manners the son of the portrait enclosed and was disposed of after his demise which was in Sussex in 1945. The picture then lay undiscovered for some 60 years.