Add Or 5355

Full-length standing portrait of Lord Lake (1744-1808), Commander-in-Chief in India 1801-05, and again (after the brief Cornwallis period) 1805-07. Lake is standing holding with his right hand the hilt of his sword, which is still in its scabbard and attached to the belt on his right side, while his left arm is extended holding his hat. He looks comparatively young with red hair, which rather resembles that of his son in Place’s double portrait discussed below.

Inscribed below in Persian, badly: ‘Jarnil (L?)aka sahib bahadur.’

By a Lucknow artist, after a portrait by George Place.

Water-colour and body-colour; 535 by 336 mm, laid down on card 58 by 38.5 cm.

Purchased 2000.

Note: After a military career in America, France and Ireland, Gerard Lake served as Commander-in-Chief in India from July 1801 to July 1805, and again from October 1805 to October 1807 after the untimely death of Lord Cornwallis. He distinguished himself on the battle field during the Maratha War of 1803, when he commanded the campaigns to the north against the troops of Sindhia. These campaigns included the storming of Aligarh, the taking of Delhi and Agra, and finally the defeat of Sindhia at Laswari, for which he was raised to the peerage as Lord Lake of Delhi and Laswari. In 1805 he headed another campaign against the Marathas which culminated in the surrender of Holkar at Amritsar. He returned to England in 1807 and was made a Viscount, but died the following year.

Clearly based on a British portrait, this drawing is in mirror reverse, probably from the double portrait of Lake and his son painted by George Place, and now known only from the engraving of 1807 (Archer 1979, pl. 230).