The Tate painting formed part of a set of family portraits that were commissioned by our sitter’s heir, Sir Walter Bagot (1644 – 1705), in 1675. Our portrait of his father pre-dates the larger set by five years and represents the very first portrait of a member of the Bagot family by Wright. Interestingly, a letter from Sir Walter, which is dated 28th February 1670, the year our portrait was painted, is addressed to his father, but care of the artist’s address.[1]

This infers that Sir Edward was comfortable entrusting the artist with potentially intimate correspondence from his family. However, considering it was Sir Walter who commissioned six portraits from the artist in 1675, it is plausible that he asked his father to venture to London to sit for his portrait – probably to help Sir Walter gauge whether Wright could render a worthy likeness – and, thus, knew that his father would be able to receive a letter at Wright’s address.[2]

The five-year gap between our portrait and the main order for the remaining Bagot portraits might be explained by Wright being awarded the largest and, arguably, the most significant commission of his career at the end of 1670, when he was chosen by the City of London to paint twenty-two full-length portraits of the “fire judges”.[3] Although the artist must have finished this huge order by 1673 - as the diarist John Evelyn noted seeing them at Guildhall on 31st July of that year – the artist was subsequently busy working for the crown, having been recently appointed a “picture drawer in ordinary”.[4]

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Sir Edward Bagot was born into one of the most ancient Staffordshire families, who had held considerable office in the county since at least 1348. The son and heir of Sir Harvey Bagot (1591 – 1660), 1st Bt. of Field Hall, Leigh and his first wife Katherine Adderley (1594 – 1622), Sir Edward first studied at Trinity College, Oxford before pursuing law at Middle Temple in London. During the Civil War, Sir Edward appears to have remained neutral, which worked to his advantage, unlike his father, whose indecision in choosing which side to support saw him financially penalised to the extent that he handed over the family seat, Blithfield Hall, to Edward upon his marriage to Mary Lambard (1618 – 1686) in 1641. During the Protectorate years, Sir Edward worked as a justice in Staffordshire’s county bench and, upon the restoration of the crown in 1660, he was unanimously elected the county’s member of parliament. [5]

Upon his father’s death later that year, Sir Edward became the 2nd baronet of Blithfield, which is where he raised his large family. Of the seventeen children born, only seven survived, of which Walter (1644 – 1705), later 3rd Bt., and Mary (1646 – 1692), later Lady Newdegate of Arbury Hall, were the most noteworthy. Their portraits, alongside likenesses of Sir Walter’s mother with her granddaughter – presumably designed as a pendant to the Tate portrait – and paired portraits of himself with his wife, were also painted by Wright and once formed part of the Bagot set at Blithfield, which all remained together until the collection was dispersed in 1967.

In court circles, Sir Edward bore the reputation of being “as worthy, plain, and honest gentleman as the earth bears” and maintained amiable relationships with several notable figures of his day, including the Earl of Clarendon, the Bishop of Lichfield, and the Archbishop of Canterbury.[6] His good character is further corroborated on his monumental epitaph in Blithfield Hall’s chapel, which states that he was: “a true Asserter of Primitive Episcopacy in the Church & Hereditary Monarchy in the State who was by his Country Unanimously chosen one of ye Knights of the Shire in that memorable Parliament which restored both after many feritment by his affable temper constant Hospitality & inviolable integrity in doing Justice He drew to himself the love & esteem of all.”[7]

The artist of our portrait, John Michael Wright (1617 - 1694), was one of the most distinguished and original native-born portrait painters during the Restoration period in Britain. Amongst other things, his palette is very distinctive from others of the period and might be attributable to his unique training, having first studied under one of Scotland’s earliest known portrait painters, George Jamesone (c.1587 - 1644), in Edinburgh before becoming the first British painter to be admitted to Rome’s prestigious Accademia di San Luca in 1648. This exposure to continental artists shaped the direction of Wright’s technique and style, a unique fusion of Dutch realism, Italian Baroque, and French classicism.

Wright returned to England in 1655 and, by 1660, had established a successful portrait practice in London. At the time, he was described by John Evelyn, as ‘the famous painter Mr Write’.[8] Wright worked on occasion for the court and was appointed Picture Drawer in Ordinary to the King in 1673 - indeed, one of the most iconic portraits of Charles II was painted by him (Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh) - but his clients increasingly came from the margins of the court and particularly from the catholic nobility and gentry.

The end of his life was marred with disappointment when, in 1685, he was employed as a steward to the Earl of Castlemaine, who had been made Ambassador to the Vatican by the newly crowned James VII & II. The embassy failed within a couple of years and his hopes of becoming an official court portraitist were dashed when the Catholic king lost the throne in 1688. The artist died a few years later, having lived in relative poverty for the remainder of his life.

[1] The letter is addressed to Sir Edward, “at: Mr Writes: a Limner: in greate Queene street the next dore to the Queenes head taveron: London.” See: W. J. Smith, “Letters from Michael Wright” from The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 95, no. 604, (July 1953), p. 236.

[2] 1670 was the year that Sir Walter married Jane Thelwall, a Welsh heiress. Her extended family, the Salesbury’s, were suspicious of the Bagots’ motives so Sir Edward might have had good reason to visit London to negotiate the marriage. Negotiations for the match were complicated as Jane was sole heir to the Salesbury’s valuable 20,000-acre Bachymbyd and Pool Park estates in North Wales. A lengthy legal battle eventually fell apart because of a legal technicality, as well as the discovery that one of Jane’s cousins had forged a deed document, which saw the Bagot family double their fortune with their new Welsh assets and become the largest landowners in Staffordshire. See: S. Jarrett, Gentility in Early Modern Wales: The Salesbury Family, 1450 – 1720”, Cardiff 2024, pp. 48 – 49 & pp. 62 – 64.

[3] These men were leading members of London’s various judicial bodies, who worked pro bono in the wake of the Great Fire of London in 1666 “to adjudicate on all questions arising between the owners and tenants of property in the City destroyed by fire.” See: John Michael Wright and John Evelyn.

[4] Wright went up to Blithfield in the summer of 1675 and remained there until the autumn, residing with the Bagot family and making preliminary sketches of them, before returning to London for the winter and working on the paintings over the following year. See: K. Hearn’s catalogue entry for Mrs Salesbury with her grandchildren here.

[5] M. W. Helms & A. M. Mimardière, “BAGOT, Edward (1616-73), of Blithefield, Staffs.” from The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660 - 1690, Vol. 1, London 1983. Available here: https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1660-1690/member/bagot-edward-1616-73

[6] W. Bagot, 2nd Bt, Memorials of the Bagot Family, Blithfield 1824, pp. 72 – 73. A letter from Sir Edward to Gilbert Sheldon survives at the Folger Library, see: https://digitalcollections.folger.edu/bib230544-310297-la47

[7] Ibid, p. 112.

[8] E.S. de Beer (ed.), The Diary of John Evelyn, 5 April 1659, Oxford 1955, p.228.