Attributed to the Studio of Jonathan Richardson the Elder (English, 1667-1745)
'Portrait of Sir William Lee, Kt (1688-1754), PC, Chief Justice of England'
circa 1730
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Oil on Canvas
Measuring 30 inches by 25 inches /  inches by  inches framed
In a carved and giltwood period frame​
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Description: 
Half-length portrait of the Rt. Hon. Sir William Lee (1688-1754), in robes as Lord Chief Justice, wearing the Collar of Esses, turned to the left.
Judge; entered the Middle Temple, 1703; Latin secretary to George I and George II, 1718-30; recorder of Buckingham, 1722; MP from 1727; attorney general to Frederick, Prince of Wales, chief justice of King's Bench, privy councillor and knighted in 1737.
 
REFERENCES:
Kerslake, John "Early Georgian Portraits" published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office (1977), p.461.
Kerslake entry reads as follows: "Apart from the Vanderbank of 1738, a number of other portraits in the Hartwell House sale show the sitter in the robes of chief justice which he became in succession to Hardwicke, 8 June 1737. Lot 35, a head and shoulders sold as a signed and dated Allan Ramsay of 1746, is now in the Inner Temple; a signed three-quarter length by Joseph Highmore of c.1740 (lot 51) is untraced; a portrait sold as unattributed (lot 75) but almost certainly by Richardson, was acquired by Major Swinton Lee and another three-quarter length, seated, with a statue of Justice in a niche behind the figure was at Sotheby's, 18 March 1970, lot 143, from the collection of Hugh Lee. A portrait was painted and engraved by G. Johnson (CS 2)."
 
Sotheby's Sale of the Valuable Contents of Hartwell House, Buckinghamshire 26 April 1938, lot 75, described as follows: p.14 First Day of Sale Dining-Room Lot 75 "English School (18th Century) Portrait of the Rt. Hon. Sir William Lee, (1688-1754), in his robes as Lord Chief Justice, half length, turned to the left / 30in. by 25in."
 
Smyth, Admiral William Henry "AEdes Hartwellianae, or notices of the Mansion of Hartwell" published by The British Library (1864), p.116.
Smyth's account of the portrait reads as follows: "Portraits....In the dining-room is Sir William Lee, the brother of Sir George, and Lord Chief Justice of England, in scarlet robes. Near him is his pretty second wife, Margaret Drake",  p.116.