(1743 - 1827), e. s. of 3rd D. of Gordon [S]; sty. M. of Huntly - 1752 when suc. fa. as 4th D.; educ. Eton; army officer, 89th Ft. 1759, col. 1793; m. 1 1767 Jane Maxwell (d. 1812), 2 1820 Jane Christie; KT 1775; cr. E. of Norwich 1784; FRS 1784.
1762 - 3 Florence (by 27 Nov. - 5 Dec. 1762), Rome (Dec. 1762 - Mar. 1763), Venice (11 May - 12 Jun.) [Geneva Sep.]
The 4th Duke of Gordon travelled with his younger brother, Lord William Gordon, and a tutor, Antoine Dassier (a son of the medallist Jean Dassier). They were in Florence on 27 November, and left on 5 December for Rome,1 where they stayed several months. They visited Nathaniel Dance,2 and may have commissioned work from Angelica Kauffman.3 The Duke sat to Batoni (SNG; Clark/Bowron 279), but he was apparently left unmoved by antiquity; he 'showed scarcely a trace of animation as he sat in his carriage, while Winckelmann described to him, with the choicest expressions and grandest illustrations, the beauties of the ancient works of art'.4 From 11 May to 12 June the brothers were in Venice, where they accompanied Lord Northampton on his offical entry on 29/30 May.5 The brothers were in Geneva in September.6 Copies by Harwood of an Apollo and Venus, and busts of Homer and Seneca, dating from 1763 - 5, were at Gordon Castle, probably commissioned by the Duke in Rome.7
1. Seafield mss, gd 248/993 (Abb? Grant, 27 Nov. 1762). Caldwell Papers, 2:158. 2. Dance letters mss (6 Feb. 1763). 3. Farington Diary (3 Feb. 1797). 4. Winckelmann Briefe, 2:297. 5. ASV is 758. W.B. Compton, History of the Comptons, 187. 6. Kaye letters mss (4 Sep. 1763). 7. J. Fleming and H. Honour, Festschrift Ulrich Middeldorf, 515n12.