Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-william-beechey-30" aria-label="More by Sir William Beechey" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir William Beechey</a>
Thomas Law Hodges
Bequeathed by Sir Edward Stern 1933
adults
Hodges, Thomas Law
individuals: male
man
named individuals
people
politician - non-specific
portraits
public service
work and occupations
<p>Thomas Law Hodges (1776–1857) of Hemsted Place, Cranbrook, Kent, was for many years a Member of Parliament for that county. An old inscription on the back states that the sitter is 18 years old. This would date the picture to 1794, so that it is probably the portrait of ‘Mr Hodges’ which Beechey exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1795. Hodges’s family were long-established as landowners in Dorset and Gloucestershire. He had a privileged upbringing, educated at Harrow and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was admitted in 1794, perhaps the occasion for this portrait being made.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2016</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
11 September 2019 – 31 May 2020
2020-05-31
11 September 2019 – 16 February 2020
2020-02-16
2019-09-11
Musée du Luxembourg (Paris, France)
29 February 2020 – 31 May 2020
2020-05-31
2020-02-29
External
2019-09-11
Gainsborough to Turner: The Golden Age of English Painting
Loan-out
Thomas Law Hodges
support: 765 × 635 mm
frame: 948 × 820 × 75 mm
Bequeathed by Sir Edward Stern 1933
<div class="text">
<p>Thomas Law Hodges (1776–1857) of Hemsted Place, Cranbrook, Kent, was for many years a Member of Parliament for that county. An old inscription on the back states that the sitter is 18 years old. This would date the picture to 1794, so that it is probably the portrait of ‘Mr Hodges’ which Beechey exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1795. Hodges’s family were long-established as landowners in Dorset and Gloucestershire. He had a privileged upbringing, educated at Harrow and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was admitted in 1794, perhaps the occasion for this portrait being made.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2016-02-23T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N04688</b> THOMAS LAW HODGES ?exh. 1795
<br/>
<br/>Inscribed ‘Tho<sup>s</sup>. Law Hodges/Ætat:suae 18/Painted by Sir Wil<sup>m</sup> Beechey’ in old hand on stretcher
<br/>Oil on canvas, 30 1/8 × 25 3/16 (76.5 × 64.0)
<br/>Bequeathed by Sir Edward Stern to the National Gallery, with life interest to his widow, 1933. Transferred to the Tate Gallery 1979
<br/><i>Prov:</i> ...; Agnew's; with donor by 1902.
<br/><i>Exh:</i>
?R.A. 1795 (214); Burlington Fine Arts Club 1902 (52); <i>Spring Exhibition</i>, Whitechapel Gallery, 1907 (78), inexplicably ascribed to J.L. David.
<br/><i>Lit</i>: W. Roberts, Sir William Beechey R.A., 1907, p.48; Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues, The British School, 1946, p.8.
<br/>
<br/>Thomas Hodges (1776–1857) of Hemsted Place, Cranbrook, Kent, was for many years M.P. for that country. His age of 18 would date the picture to 1794, so that it is probably that the ‘Mr Hodges’ which Beechey exhibited at the R.A. in 1795 was this picture. (Roberts, op. cit., suggests that the R.A. picture may have been a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> of William Hodges the painter, but there is no record that Beechey ever painted him). Its good condition, strong likeness and vigorous rendering of youthful vitality makes this one of Beechey's best male portraits.
<br/>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><i>The Tate Gallery 1978-80: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions</i>, London 1981
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-06T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults Hodges, Thomas Law individuals: male man named individuals people politician - non-specific portraits public service work and occupations