Charles Lamb
- Overview
- Extended Catalogue Entry
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Charles Lamb
by William Hazlitt
oil on canvas, 1804
30 in. x 24 1/2 in. (762 mm x 622 mm)
Purchased, 1878
Primary Collection
NPG 507
Artistback to top
- William Hazlitt (1778-1830), Essayist, journalist and critic. Artist or producer of 1 portrait, Sitter in 5 portraits.
This portraitback to top
This affectionate portrait shows Lamb dressed as Velázquez's Philip IV. It was one of the last portraits Hazlitt painted before dedicating himself to writing.
Linked publicationsback to top
- Holmes, Richard, The Romantic Poets and Their Circle, 2013, p. 71
- Holmes, Richard, Insights: The Romantic Poets and Their Circle, 2005, p. 58
- Holmes, Richard; Crane, David; Woof, Robert; Hebron, Stephen, Romantics and Revolutionaries: Regency portraits from the National Portrait Gallery, 2002, p. 37
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 360
- Walker, Richard, Regency Portraits, 1985, p. 303
- Woof, Robert; Hebron, Stephen, Romantic Icons, 1999, p. 65
Events of 1804back to top
Current affairs
William Pitt returns to office and forms a second coalition administration, retaining many of those who had served under his predecessor Henry Addington but specifically excluding his arch rival Charles James Fox .Art and science
William Blake starts writing Jerusalem. One of his most ambitious allegorical poems, it took nearly eight years to complete.Amidst infighting about submissions to the annual exhibition, attempts are made to unseat painter Benjamin West as President of the Royal Academy and elect architect James Wyatt instead.
International
Napoleon declares himself Emperor of France and is crowned as Napoleon I by Pope Pius VII in Paris.Haiti achieves independence led by Toussaint L'Ouverture, the patriot and martyr who had seized control from the French in 1801. He becomes a symbolic figure of freedom for the British anti-slavery movement.
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