James Wyatt

Painted on plaster with a distinctive bust-line termination, this silhouette shows a distinguished gentleman wearing a bound pigtail wig and a frilled cravat. A hand-written label on the reverse names him as James Wyatt of Coventry, the profile taken in 1787 at the age of 36.

Records show that James Wyatt, the son of Pratt Wyatt and Ann Hawkes, was baptised in 1750. He became an eminent banker with premises near Women’s Market Place (since re-developed and re-named) in Coventry. In 1809 he purchased Willenhall House as a country retreat on the outskirts of Coventry and it was here that he died in February 1814, aged 64. He does not appear to have ever married.

The paint surface has some old pitting caused by the porous quality of the plaster base. This doesn’t detract from the appeal of this rare early example of Thomason’s work. It is housed in the original pressed brass frame with an old hand-written label reverse.

Thomason worked primarily in Dublin where he was advertising ‘Most Striking Likenesses in Miniature Profile’. In 1786 and 1787, the period of this profile, he spent time in Coventry, Leicester and Nottingham. In 1796 he advertised for ‘all persons who never could procure a good likeness before, to have one more trial’ when the artist promised ‘the fullest satisfaction, or will take nothing for his trouble’.