Early Georgian Portraits Catalogue: Foreword

FOREWORD

This catalogue is based on the Gallery archive; my first acknowledgment must be to those who since the Gallery's foundation in 1856 have contributed to this bank of knowledge. Special thanks are due to the many owners who have allowed their portraits to be studied and reproduced; to those who have permitted the use of their photographs; to the photographers themselves, particularly when working on location and, not least, to those responsible for cleaning and restoring the Gallery's portraits – a continuing process.

It would be impossible individually to name all who have helped over a long period, but the compiler has been sustained by the encouragement of the late Charles Kingsley Adams. Of other former colleagues, Mr D.T. Piper provided valuable early guidance and Dr Roy Strong stimulating discussion; Miss A.M. Wrinch (Mrs Alastair Rowan) furnished useful material. The Jacobite entries have benefited from the typescript extracts from the Stuart papers prepared by the late Miss Stuart-Wortley. Mr E. Croft-Murray kindly gave me access to the forthcoming catalogue of 18th-century British Drawings in the British Museum and discussed the attribution of the drawing of Lovat at Preston.

Mr B. Boyce, Professor A. Cash, Mr M. Cormack, Dr Eveline Cruickshanks, Miss Elizabeth Einberg, Messrs T.W.I. Hodgkinson, R.E. Hutchison, A. Hyatt King, J. Ingamells, Sir Oliver Millar, Professors R. Paulson, A. Smart and the late Professor W.K. Wimsatt junior, have kindly read various sections of the manuscript. To my present colleagues at the Gallery, to Miss Janet Arnold, Mr H. Murray Baillie, Mr John Brooke, the late Major N.F. Dawnay, Messrs J. Harris, J. Brooke-Little, Lieut-Cdr G.P. Naish, Miss Joyce Plesters, Miss Natalie Rothstein, Mr R. St John Gore, Mrs Ann Saunders, Miss Veronica Stokes and Mr R.J.B. Walker, I am grateful for much information and advice (in all cases the views expressed are the compiler's).

Mr J. Murrell examined the Gallery's miniatures out of their frames and made his findings available. The x-ray and infra-red photographs were taken by the National Gallery Scientific Department. Mr R. Williams in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum and, at the National Portrait Gallery, Miss Sarah Wimbush and our Publications Department have cheerfully acceded to endless requests for photographs, while our hard-pressed working party has never been too busy to produce portraits for examination. Mrs Cullen has finally checked and indexed a complicated manuscript, typed for the printers by Mrs Kate Merkel. It remains to thank the officers of HMSO, the printer and our designer Mr Alan Stephens, for their patience and skill.

 JOHN KERSLAKE