Sir Hugh Clopton

Description

Sir Hugh Clopton (1671-1751), 1724

Oil on canvas

Thomas Murray

A half-length portrait of Sir Hugh Clopton depicted wearing a blue velvet coat over a richly embroidered waistcoat, he wears a fashionable powdered wig. The Cloptons were a wealthy local family of long-standing. It was another Hugh Clopton who had built the house that later become known as New Place in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1483. It was this house that William Shakespeare purchased in 1597. It passed back into the hands of the Clopton family and Sir Hugh's father, Sir John Clopton, settled the property onto Sir Hugh in 1702 when he married Elizabeth Millward. The couple went on to have eight children.

Another portrait of Sir Hugh is in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust collection, see STRST : SBT 1932-3.

Thomas Murray (1663-1734) was a prominent Scottish portrait painter who produced portraits of British and European royalty and aristocracy including King William and Queen Mary and Queen Anne. Murray himself, like his tutor John Riley, only painted faces leaving the rest of the portrait to be completed by others.