DREWEATTS is to offer a historic painting of Englefield House (in Berkshire), which shows the owner of the house Powlett Wrighte (the younger), standing in front of it in the mid-18th century.

Powlett Wrighte Junior (1739-1779) was the son of Powlett and Mary Wrighte and the heir to Englefield House and its estate. His father died in 1741, when he was just two years old and the house and estates were left in trust for him until he turned twenty-one. The painting shows Englefield as it was in the mid-18th century, most likely around 1760, the year Wrighte turned twenty-one and came into full ownership of the house.

READ MORE: Flat in former Barclays office in Basingstoke up for auction

This would have been a thoroughly plausible reason to commission a painting of himself, standing proudly in front of his country house of which he was now master.

Given that his mother, now the chatelaine of several large houses through her second marriage in 1745, would have spent much of her time away from Englefield, it is also entirely plausible that she would have wanted a second version of the picture to hang in one of her other houses to remind her of the house where she lived before and to remind her of her eldest son, who was now the master there.

On his death in 1779 and being childless, Wrighte left the Englefield estate to his uncle, Nathaniel Wrighte in accordance with his father's will. Nathaniel Wrighte let the house and estate to Lady Clive, the widow of the famous 'Clive of India' and she lived there for some years in the 1780s.

SEE ALSO: The Kings Head pub in Alton to go under the hammer

Since that time that house has been architecturally altered more than once - most significantly during the early 19th century when it was given some impressive 'Gothic' additions.

The elevation shown in this picture, however, is largely still extant today and the positioning of the church to the viewer's right is similarly unchanged. The descendants of Powlett Wrighte are still the owners of Englefield House today.

The artist is Royal Academian and politician Nathanial Dance (1735-1811).

The painting will be offered In Dreweatts Old Master, British and European Art sale this week (October 9).