Portrait of Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, 6th Bt. of Pitsligo (1739-1806), half-length, wearing a black coat with a white stock, and the Order of Nova Scotia

oil on canvas

75.5 x 62.2 cm.; 29 3/4 x 24 1/2 in.

Sir William Forbes, sixth baronet of Pitsligo (1739-1806) was a banker, author and generous philanthropist. Beginning his career as an apprentice to the Coutts brothers in Edinburgh, reportedly spending only one night out of Edinburgh during his first five years, he was fully admitted to the firm in 1763. Forbes became an influential voice in the Merchant’s Company of Edinburgh and frequently acted as financial advisor to William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806), who offered him several parliamentary seats and, in 1799, an Irish peerage, but Forbes refused these honours. His paternal grandmother, Mary Forbes, was a sister of Alexander, 4th Lord Forbes of Pitsligo (1678-1762) (see lot 109), attainted after the Jacobite rising of 1745, and Forbes made it is his duty to restore the title and estate. Sir William inherited the baronetcy of Nova Scotia from his father. When he succeeded to the arms of Pitsligo in 1781, he brought his philanthropic endeavours, already felt widely through Edinburgh, to Aberdeenshire, where he laid out the village of New Pitsligo and made ample provision for its residents. Forbes was known as a convivial conversationalist in both Scotland and London, where he was a member of Samuel Johnson's Literary Club and a friend of Sir Joshua Reynolds, for whom he also sat (National Galleries Scotland, Edinburgh). (Accession number PG 1296; see D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds: A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings, New Haven and London 2000, vol. I, p. 199, cat. no. 658; reproduced vol. II, p. 553, plate 1484.)

J. Farington, The Diary of Joseph Farington, J. Greig (ed.), London 1923, vol. II, p. 134 (19 August 1803: 'Lane called - Lawrence has painted one of his best heads, - a portrait of Sir Wm. Forbes. He finished it on Wednesday last'); List of Portraits at Fettercairn House, 1924, p. 13 (Hall, over Passage Door); K. Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence, London 1954, p. 37; K. Garlick (ed.), A catalogue of the paintings, drawings and pastels of Sir Thomas Lawrence. The Walpole Society, vol. XXXIX, Glasgow 1964, p. 81;