Charles Grey, later 2nd Earl Grey

Henry Bone came from Cornwall and first worked painting china in Plymouth, before settling in London around 1779. He painted designs for lockets, watches and jewellery as well as miniatures in watercolour on ivory, but is best known for reinvigorating the art of enamel miniatures. He created a new market for copies in enamel of full-scale easel paintings, as well as painting original portraits. In 1801 George, Prince of Wales (later George IV), made Bone his ‘Painter in Enamel’, a post he continued to hold under three successive monarchs. His popularity led to election at the Royal Academy and he commanded huge prices, especially for his large enamels after old master and contemporary subject paintings.

While many of Bone’s works are copies, they demonstrate his excellent draughtsmanship, sense of colour and technical accomplishment in this challenging medium. His skill means that today many of his copies provide a truer record of colours of the originals than the actual oil paintings he worked from, which have degraded with time.

This enamel is a reduced copy based on a portrait in oils by Sir Thomas Lawrence, painted in 1793 for Dr Heath, the headmaster of Eton College. Bone manages to capture the warm colouring and sense of immediacy of Lawrence’s portrait of the 29-year-old Charles Grey, then an MP. His skill in the use of colour is evident in the flesh tones, and his success in emulating Lawrence’s famously bold brush strokes are seen in the freely painted hair and highlights on the sitter’s coat. Bone also creates the effect of thickly applied paint in the white highlights on Grey’s face and outline of the cravat.

An astute politician, Grey would go on to serve as Prime Minister in 1831 and again in 1832–4, during which time he successfully saw the passing of the first Reform Act and the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. Away from public duties, Grey had a notorious liaison with Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. He is also well-known for Earl Grey tea, which is named after him.