The sitter was the eldest son of George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham, and the grandson of George Grenville, who served as Prime Minister from 1763-65 early in the reign of George III. He was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, where he matriculated in 1791. As Earl Temple, he was elected MP for Buckinghamshire in 1797 and held a series of positions including Privy Counsellor (1806) and Vice-President of the Board of Trade. In 1813, he left the House of Commons upon succeeding his father in the marquessate. He was appointed a Knight of the Garter in 1820 and further honoured when he was made Earl Temple of Stowe, Marquess of Chandos and Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. He served as Lord-Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire from 1813-39.

In April 1796, when Earl Temple, the sitter married Lady Anne Brydges, daughter and sole heir of the late James Brydges, 3rd Duke of Chandos. Earl Temple added his wife’s family names to his own by royal license dated 15 November 1799, and thus the full family name became unusually quintuple-barrelled.

A full-length version of this portrait by Beechey, dated 1802, is at Stowe House, the historic family seat in Buckinghamshire, and a caricature entitled A view of a temple near Buckingham (punning on the sitter’s then courtesy title, Earl Temple, and the temples in the grounds at Stowe) published by Dighton in 1811, shows our sitter in a similar uniform. It has been suggested that, although it was green at a later date, this uniform is that of the Royal Buckinghamshire Militia, of which our sitter was colonel. An engraved portrait from 1815 further confirms the sitter in our portrait to be Earl Temple, and later 2nd Marquess and 1st Duke.

Beechey also painted other members of the family, including the 1st Duke’s father, George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham (1753 – 1813), whom this portrait was once thought to represent. Our picture stayed at Stowe House until the 1921 Stowe sale, when it was erroneously identified as George, 1st Marquess and ascribed to Thomas Gainsborough.

Beechey also painted Anna Eliza, Duchess of Buckingham and Chandos, our sitter’s wife, with her son, the future 2nd Duke. Interestingly, the youngest of Beechey’s eighteen children, Richard, had Brydges as a middle name, suggesting a close relationship of friendship with the Duke’s family.