Little is known of the sitter except that he was the eldest son of Henry Fermor (d.

I746) of Tusmore, Oxfordshire. He was painted in Rome both by Mengs and his rival Pompeo Batoni, as Horace Walpole recorded in a list of pictures by Mengs in England in his Anecdotes of Painting in England: 'Mr Farmer, a Roman Catholic, son of lady Brown, has his own portrait both by Mencks and Pompeio'.

Provenance

Anon. sale, King and Chasemore, Pulborough, February 1978; Colnaghi.


Back to top