241 - ENGLISH SCHOOL (EARLY 18TH CENTURY)

ENGLISH SCHOOL (EARLY 18TH CENTURY) PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN, TRADITIONALLY IDENTIFIED AS EDWARD, 2ND VISCOUNT CONWAY (1592-1655), THREE-QUARTER-LENGTH, IN A RED COAT AND WHITE STOCK Oil on canvas Bears inscription of the Conway family tree (on a sheet attached to the reverse) 127 x 107cm (50 x 42in.) Saleroom Notice: Please note that the cataloguing has been updated and reads correctly online as ENGLISH SCHOOL (EARLY 18TH CENTURY) PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN, TRADITIONALLY IDENTIFIED AS EDWARD, 2ND VISCOUNT CONWAY (1592-1655) Please note the sitter's coat and wig are more consistent with a portrait date of early 17th Century The Right Honorable Edward Conway 2nd Viscount Conway (1592 - 1655) was a distinguished peer, parliamentarian, military commander, and celebrated bibliophile. He was educated at Queens College, Oxford and spent most of his early life in the Netherlands and served as a military commander in the Low Countries. He was Knighted at Whitehall in March 1618 and married in the following year, the union proving to be long but unhappy. As a veteran of numerous campaigns he had fallen heavily into debt, in October 1623 he resolved to return home again to order his affairs, but could not guarantee that he would not be arrested by his creditors. A solution presented itself when Conway was returned in his absence as MP for Warwick. Conway helped to organize the ill-fated Cadiz Expedition, vowing loyalty to the Duke of Buckingham. At the 1626 Conway was returned at Yarmouth, however at the 1628 parliamentary elections, he was unable to find a seat and was summoned to the Lords in his father’s barony, an honour unprecedented for a viscount’s son, and took his seat on 23 April. In 1629 Conway obtained the governorship of County Londonderry, and settled at Lisburn, where he formed an extensive library. He inherited his father’s titles two years later, but leased his family seat at Ragley to the 2nd Lord Brooke (Robert Greville). Conway returned to Ireland in 1639 with a new army commission, but was summoned back to England in 1640 as general of the horse against the Scots. He sought to recover his military reputation by volunteering for further service in Ireland and drove back the Irish rebels at Lisburn in November 1641, but his library was burnt in the battle’s aftermath. He sided with both the Parliamentarians and Royalists at certain periods which meant he was viewed with suspicion, he was also plagued by debt, and now in declining health, he found shelter with his friend 10th Earl of Northumberland at Petworth House until 1653, when he returned to the Continent, finally dying either at Paris or Lyons in June 1655. His body was brought home, and buried with his ancestors at Arrow, Warwickshire.