Portrait of Thomas Dawson, 1st Viscount Cremorne. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $100,800
This portrait of Thomas Dawson by Sir Thomas Lawrence comes up at Sotheby’s online Master Paintings sale part II which opens in New York on January 18 and runs to January 28. It is estimated at $40,000-60,000. The sale includes a number of important Renaissance devotional paintings, 17th century Dutch and Flemish paintings, portraiture across the ages, landscapes and still lifes.
Thomas Dawson was born in 1725, the third son of Richard Dawson of Dawson Grove, Monaghan, and Elizabeth, daughter of John Vesey, Archbishop of Tuam. He was a member of Parliament for Monaghan from 1749 to 1768. In 1770 he was made Baron Dartrey of Dawson’s Grove; in June 1785, Viscount Cremorne; and in November 1797 was named Baron Cremorne of Castle Dawson. He was first married to Anne Fermor, youngest daughter of the 1st Earl of Pomfret. Following her death in 1769, Dawson married Philadelphia Hannah Freame, daughter of Thomas Freame and granddaughter of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. Viscount Cremorne died in 1813. As he had no heirs, his titles became extinct.