Sir Joshua Reynold's fine portrait of Luke Gardiner.
This very fine portrait of Luke Gardiner, 1st Viscount Mountjoy, by Sir Joshua Reynolds went way over estimate at Christie’s evening Old Masters sale on December 7. The subject sat for this portrait in 1773. Gardiner (1745-1798), an Irish landowner and MP for County Dublin, was killed at the Battle of New Ross in 1798. One of the bloodiest battles of the 1798 rebellion in Ireland was followed by an appalling massacre in the town of New Ross.
Though he died suppressing Irish rebels he had, in 1778, introduced legislation in the Irish House of Commons aimed at alleviating many of the economic difficulties faced by Catholics.
He also promoted the interest of Dublin and its surrounding areas. Like his father and grandfather he developed the Gardiner estate. In the 1770s he was responsible for the development of Temple, Eccles and North Great George’s Streets, and later in the 1790s for Mountjoy Square and Rutland Square.
The portrait made £553,250 against an estimate of £200,000-£300,000.