Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (1770-1828)

Sir Thomas Lawrence, PRA (Bristol 1769 – London 1830). Oil painting on canvas, Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (1770-1828) by Sir Thomas Lawrence PRA (Bristol 1769 – London 1830), circa 1825. A label attached to frame is inscribed in Latin: Beata simplicitas quae difficiles questionum relinquit vias; & in plana ac firma pergit semita in audatorum Dei' ('A happy simplicity which shuns the difficult journeys of speculation and follows the level and firm path of God's precepts.'). A three-quarter-length portrait of a man, turned slightly to the right, gazing at the spectator, standing before a draped curtain of mellow red. Small table covered with cloth on left-hand side, upon which is open book or roll of paper. Short wispy grey hair. He wears a white cravat beneath a black-blue overcoat with fur collar. garter Star worn on left breast. Hands clasped in front. A replica of the portrait of Lord Liverpool in the Waterloo Chamber, Windsor, Royal Collection. The sitter is Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (1770-1828). He was the second son of Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool and first Baron Hawkesbury (1727-1808) and Amelia Watts. Foreign Secretary, 1801-3; Called to the House of Lords in his father's barony of Hawkesbury in 1803; Home Secretary, 1804-6 and 1807-9; succeeded his father, as 2nd Earl, in 1808; Secretary for War and the Colonies, 1809-12; Prime Minister, 1812-27. He married Louisa Theodosia, third daughter of Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, Bishop of Derry (1730-1803). Ickworth, Suffolk (Accredited Museum)