Henry Edridge, A.R.A.

Pencil and washes, in its original early 19th century frame with acanthus leaves at the corners

33 x 22.1 cm; 13 x 8 ¾ inches

Provenance: Miss Elizabeth Broadwood, Canterbury, by descent; Colt Clavier Collection, Bethersden, Kent, until 2018.

Literature: David Wainwright, 'Broadwood by Appointment: A History', 1985, ill. facing p. 185.

This portrait of Thomas Broadwood shows him as a young man of leisure. He was the second surviving son of John Broadwood, and the third generation of the piano manufacturers John Broadwood & Sons, who made upright and grand pianos, where he worked as business manager of the company. He met Beethoven as a young man in 1818 and sent him a newly improved triple stringed piano (which subsequently belonged to Liszt and is now in the National Museum in Budapest). Thomas Broadwood purchased the Holmbush estate in Lower Beeding, Sussex, in 1824–1825, and employed Francis Edwards to design a two-storey castellated mansion with octagonal turrets. He grew dahlias in the gardens, which were highly fashionable in the 1820s and 1830s. Broadwood was High Sheriff of Sussex in 1833. Edridge’s work can be found in the collections of Britain’s major museums.