Philip Eyre Gell

Philip Eyre Gell (1723–1795) of Hopton Hall near Wirksworth, Derbyshire, was a wealthy lead-mining aristocrat.

Philip Eyre Gell was the son of Isabella, co-heir to the Jessop family of Broom Hall, Sheffield, and John Eyre, and grandson of Catherine Gell of Hopton Hall. Philip's father assumed the surname Gell after inheriting the Gell family fortune in 1732, via his mother Catherine Gell, daughter of Sir John Gell, 2nd Baronet, and sister of 3rd baronet, Sir Philip Gell who had died in 1719 without a direct heir. When John Eyre died in 1739, the Hopton Hall estate, and Gell name, passed to son Philip Eyre, as eldest of seven children, which also included brother Admiral John Gell.

The family's fortune was founded on the local lead industry, through ownership of the lead tithes in the mines of Bakewell, Hope and Tideswell. Gell is known for building the road between his lead-mining interests at Hopton and a new smelter at Cromford, naming the route Via Gellia as a nod to his family's unfounded claim of descent from the Romans. He was High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1755. In 1777 textile entrepreneur Richard Arkwright leased a corn mill from Gell and converted it to spin cotton, using his water frame. It was the first cotton mill in the world to use a steam engine.

Gell was married relatively late, when aged 50, to the poet Dorothy Milnes (daughter and co-heir of William Milnes of Aldercar Park), in 1774, with her parents' consent as she was 16.

When Philip Eyre Gell died in 1795 he left the Hopton estate to eldest son Philip Gell MP (1775–1842). His second son was renowned antiquarian Sir William Gell. Philip was succeeded by daughter Isabella, who died in 1878, thus ending the Gell line.

An archive of documents from the Gell family of Hopton Hall is held by the Derbyshire Record Office.

Portrait of Philip Gell by Sir Joshua Reynolds
Completed in about 1763, the portrait of Philip Gell by Sir Joshua Reynolds is considered to be one of his greatest works.

The picture broke new ground for the artist as his first notable portrait of full-length format to place a sitter in a relatively informal pose in a country setting. In this Reynolds was not only formulating an appropriate way of expressing Gell's social position as a country gentleman, as opposed to the more formal approach he had adopted for portraits of his aristocratic patrons, but also seems to have been reacting to the challenge set by the work of his contemporary and soon to be rival Thomas Gainsborough. As Nicholas Penny comments, Gainsborough perfected this genre of portrait in his full-length of William Poyntz (Althorp). Like Gell, Poyntz is shown in the country in an informal and naturalistic pose with a gun in his hand and a dog at his feet. E K Waterhouse considered Reynolds's portrait of Gell 'a deliberate answer to Gainsborough's William Poyntz', commenting that 'Reynolds was exceedingly sensitive to competition and was determined to beat every competitor at his own game-first Ramsay, then Gainsborough.' However, as Mannings observes, 'the evidence of the pocket books suggests that Reynolds had already begun this picture before Gainsborough's was exhibited in 1762' which suggests a less linear level of influence at play. More recently Hugh Belsey argued that it was in fact Gainsborough who drew inspiration from the Gell portrait and 'it seems likely on visual evidence that Gainsborough saw Reynolds's portrait of Philip Gell painted in 1760-61. Gainsborough includes the same elements as the Gell portrait rearranging them to show his merits as a landscapist and colourist and adapting the position of the gun.'

Karen Hearn has further argued that Anthony van Dyck's portrait of Alergnon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland, 'inspired numerous later grand manner images, including Sir Joshua Reynolds's Philip Gell'. Susan Sloman suggests rather than Reynolds 'Gainsborough was the more intent upon painting in van Dyck's manner.' However, she accepts that Philip Gell was 'a more literal interpretation' of the Percy portrait.

Aileen Ribeiro points out that although Gell is posed with gun and dog, he is not dressed for hunting but instead wears a semi-formal embroidered French frock suit, white stockings and buckled shoes. This seems consistent with his reputation as a smart young man about town. There is speculation that there is a connection between the painting of Philip Gell and the model for Reynolds' well-known child portrait titled The Strawberry Girl. William Ellis-Rees says 'another suggestion is that the sitter is a child who lived near Hopton Hall in Derbyshire, where Reynolds had once travelled to paint the incumbent, Philip Gell.' Interestingly, the detailed attention which Reynolds gave to Gell's portrait is reflected in the existence of a small scale whole-length study for it. This was first recorded in the collection of Ernest Duveen (brother and partner of legendary art dealer Sir Joseph Duveen), by 1921, and was later owned by the Trustees of the Hardwicke Marriage settlement who sold it at Christie's on 7th July 1967. Its current whereabouts are unknown. Only a few such modelli by the artist are known, and it presumably acted as both a study for the picture and a model to show his prospective client his intentions.

Art historians have long considered Philip Gell to be one of Reynolds's masterpieces. The picture stands in a near perfect state of condition and was painted when the artist was at the height of his powers in his 'golden period' of the 1760s. The doyen of all Reynolds scholars, E K Waterhouse, wrote: 'It was in the 1760s that Reynolds' genius came to full flower in the diversity and geniality he was able to give to his full-length portraits' [like] the Philip Gell.'

Although unexhibited during Reynolds' lifetime, the picture was exhibited at the landmark Reynolds exhibition at the Royal Academy London in 1985 and in 1986 at the Grand Palais Paris. The painting remained in the possession of descendants of the Gell family until 2007. In 2007 the portrait was offered for sale at Christie's with an estimate of $3 to $5 million (£1.5/£2.5m). At the time this was the second-highest estimate ever put on a Reynolds full-length portrait surpassed only by Portrait of Omai which had been offered at Sotheby's in 2001 with an estimate of $8 to $10 million (£6/£8m) and sold for $11 million (£9m). The Gell portrait was bought-in and sold by Christie's post-auction for an undisclosed sum (purported to be $4 million/£2m). Omai was resold in 2023 for $65 million (£50m) to the UK's National Portrait Gallery and the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

The Gell portrait has not been seen publicly since 2007, and its current whereabouts remain unknown. It is thought to be one of the last of Reynolds' full-length masterpieces to remain in private hands. (The picture is presumed to be located within the UK, as it would almost certainly have been banned from export had an export license been applied for, as the portrait satisfies the Waverley criteria.)