The Honourable John Morgan

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The Honourable John Morgan
ArtistLeonard Fuller
Year1949
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions112 cm × 92 cm (44 in × 36 in)
Location
OwnerOn loan to the National Trust from Newport Museum and Galleries

The Honourable John Morgan is an oil on canvas painting by Leonard Fuller (1891–1973) from 1949. The subject is the Hon. John Morgan, later the sixth and last Baron Tredegar.

History

The subject, the Hon. John Morgan, studied painting under Leonard Fuller in the 1930s at the St Ives School of Painting, established by Fuller and his wife in 1938.[1][2] Morgan's study was only brief as at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 he took up a commission in the King's Own Scottish Borderers (KOSB).[1][3]

The Morgans claimed descent from Welsh princes, and were among the most powerful families in South Wales.[4] In May 1949, the Hon. John Morgan inherited the family's ancestral home, Tredegar House, Newport, and the 53,000-acre Tredegar Estate.[5] Although the house and estate were eventually sold in the 1950s in lieu of enormous death-duties, for a time Morgan intended to "live at Tredegar House on a modest scale in view of the prevailing conditions",[6] and as such commissioned Fuller to paint his portrait to be hung at the house.[1] The painting was completed by October 1949, when it was displayed at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in London (of which Fuller was a member).[1][7] The painting is currently owned by Newport Museum and Galleries and is on loan to the National Trust as part of the Trust's 50-year lease of Tredegar House from Newport Council, where the painting is on display.[8]

Description

The painting is oil on canvas. It depicts the subject in three-quarter length, sitting cross-legged and with hands in his lap, and wearing dinner attire including a green velvet smoking jacket. The subject is seated within a light-panelled room with a Marie Antoinette decorative screen behind and to his left.[8][1] An account from when the portrait was on display at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1949 states that it is of Kit-Cat size,[1] however while the painting is of three-quarter length, it is somewhat larger than the typical Kit-Cat dimensions.[8] To the bottom right-hand corner is the artist's name.[8]

References

  1. "HON. JOHN MORGAN: "STRIKING PORTRAIT"". Western Mail & South Wales News. 15 October 1949. p. 4. Retrieved 30 July 2024.
  2. "Leonard John Fuller". Cornwall Artists Index. Retrieved 12 June 2026.
  3. "No. 34768". The London Gazette (Supplement). 5 January 1940. p. 150.
  4. Morgan, Walter Thomas (1959). "MORGAN family, of Tredegar Park, Monmouth". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  5. Povey, Tomos (4 November 2017). "The last Lord of Tredegar, who avoided paying millions and sold Tredegar House". South Wales Argus. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  6. "Tredegar Park To Be Family Home". Western Mail & South Wales News. 25 May 1949. p. 1. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
  7. "Welsh pictures". Western Mail & South Wales News. 19 October 1949. p. 2. Retrieved 12 June 2026.
  8. "John Morgan, 6th Baron Tredegar (1908 - 1962)". National Trust Collections. Retrieved 12 June 2026.