John Eld of Seighford Hall, Stafford

The words on the base of the pedestal, lower right, say who paid for this picture. By the command and at the expense of the subscribers. John Eld of Seighford Hall, near Stafford, had been a founder and benefactor of the Staffordshire General Infirmary since it was set up in 1765, and the hospital's supporters wanted a full-length portrait of him. Nearly 100 of them put money in. It was not quite enough, and Eld himself made up the difference. Gainsborough shows him confident, with the plans for the new hospital in hand, because charity was expected of a gentleman of feeling in the 18th century, and this portrait was meant to honour exactly that. Eld was around 70 when he sat, born in 1704, and he lived until 1796. The portrait hung in the infirmary's boardroom until 1909. In 1912 the infirmary sold it at Christie's in London, and that same year the Museum of Fine Arts bought it from the dealer Knoedler.