Portrait of Baptist Noel (1684–1714), 3rd Earl of Gainsborough, half-length, when a boy and wearing a wig and blue jacket

inscribed upper right: Baptist Noel / 3rd earl of Gainsborough / born 1685 died 1714 / J.B. Clostermans pinxit.

oil on canvas

78.5 x 65 cm.; 30⅞ x 25⅝ in.

Very little is known about the sitter Baptist Noel (1684–1714), 3rd Earl of Gainsborough. He served for many years as High Sherriff of Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, the ancestral manor which the Noel family inherited through marriage in 1629. Alongside his official duties, Baptist is recorded as a founding member of the the Honourable Order of Little Bedlam, a notorious drinking club founded by prominent aristocrats in 1684. The most celebrated members of this raucous club included its co-founder John Cecil, 5th Earl of Exeter (1648–1700), the painters Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646–1723) and Antonio Verrio (c. 1636–1707) and the Whig grandee William Cavendish (1640–1707), 1st Duke of Devonshire. Baptist's life was short, as the Earl died of smallpox in 1714 aged 29.

John Baptist Closterman, younger brother to the celebrated John Closterman (1660–1711), painted the sitter at least two other times. An oval portrait undertaken for the Honourable Order of Little Bedlam survives at Burghley House, showing the Earl with a greyhound, his moniker among the club members of Little Bedlam. Another full-length portrait by the artist, dated to circa 1707 and featuring another greyhound, remains in the collection of the Earls of Gainsborough at Exton Hall, Rutland.