Provenance:
By descent in the family of the sitter.
Jules Porgès (1839 – 1921), acquired before 1920; and by descent to his only child
Henriette Hélène, Marquise de la Ferté-Meun.

Literature:
Nicholson, Joseph Wright of Derby: Painter of Light, London, 1968, vol. I, p. 186 (as ‘A half length of Mr. Chadwick, £25.4. Among late pictures.’)

The sitter was the son of the like-named Evelyn Chadwick of Quorndon, Leicestershire, and his wife Elizabeth. He was baptised at Quorndon Church on Christmas Day 1741. He was the elder brother of Georgina Chadwick (1746 – 1789), who was firstly married (1770) to Thomas, Lord Willoughby (1728 – 1781). She was widowed and subsequently married (1788) Edward Miller Mundy, M.P. (1747 – 1834). Their daughter, Georgina Elizabeth Mundy (1789 – 1822) married (1807) Henry Pelham, 4^th Duke of Newcastle (1785 – 1851) at Clumber.

The Chadwick family seats of Quorndon and West Leake are a few miles south-east of Derby, and many of the family’s connections were painted by Joseph Wright. Our sitter’s sister Elizabeth married John Whetham of Kirklington, whom Wright painted twice. His sister Georgiana’s second husband, Edward Miller Mundy (1747 – 1834), was a member of a family that collected numerous portraits by Wright, including the famous series of portraits of members of the Marheaton Hunt, which remained in the family until the 1970s.