Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

1 portrait

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

by Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Bt
oil on canvas, 1883
50 1/8 in. x 36 3/4 in. (1273 mm x 933 mm)
Given by William Henry Smith, 3rd Viscount Hambleden, 1945
Primary Collection
NPG 3242

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Bt (1829-1896), Painter and President of the Royal Academy; ex-officio Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery. Artist or producer associated with 43 portraits, Sitter in 76 portraits.

Related worksback to top

  • NPG D40041: Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (source portrait)

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Smartify image discovery app
  • Funnell, Peter; Warner, Malcolm, Millais: Portraits, 1999 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 19 February to 6 June 1999), p. 155
  • Hulme, Graham; Buchanan, Brian; Powell, Kenneth, The National Portrait Gallery: An Architectural History, 2000, p. 54
  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 545
  • Simon, Jacob, The Art of the Picture Frame: Artists, Patrons and the Framing of Portraits in Britain, 1997 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 8 November 1996 - 9 February 1997), p. 176 Read entry

    Gilt compo on pine, standard Watts frame construction (see NPG 1000). 6 inches wide.

    W. H. Smith, the founder of the firm of newsagents, took office in Disraeli's cabinet in 1877 as First Lord of the Admiralty. Between 1881 and his death in 1891 Smith acquired a series of portraits of his political colleagues in the Conservative party, commencing with the purchase of Millais's portrait of Disraeli himself from the Royal Academy in 1881. This was followed by Herkomer's Lord Cross, 1882, Edwin Long's Lord Iddesleigh, 1882, this portrait of Lord Salisbury by Millais, 1883, W. W. Ouless's Duke of Rutland, 1886 (with a frame made by James Bourlet), and apparently also Alma-Tadema's Lord Balfour, 1891. All these portraits, which were the same size, formerly hung at Smith's London home in Grosvenor Place. All have Watts frames, presumably following the example set by Millais with his portrait of Disraeli (it can be seen in a Watts frame in W. P. Frith's view of the Great Room at the Academy in 1881, where it was added to the exhibition at Queen Victoria's request and hung on an easel). The Watts frame was common enough for portraits and was regularly used by Millais in the 1870s and 1880s. It was, however, a less obvious choice for artists such as Herkomer and Alma-Tadema, and this suggests that these frames were chosen by Smith to match those on Millais's portraits. Smith's son, Lord Hambleden, added two portraits by Arthur Cope to the series, Lord Knutsford and Lord St Aldwyn, in 1906, but these were differently framed.

Events of 1883back to top

Current affairs

Following the Secret Ballot Act (1872), the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Act was a further measure introduced by Gladstone's government with the intention of limiting bribery and intimidation in elections. Candidates' expenses were published, and a strict limit set on expenses, and it also enabled poorer candidates to stand for parliament.

Art and science

The Royal College of Music founded in London, with the British musicologist George Grove as its first director.
Monet moves to Giverny, a village along the Seine, where he lives until his death in 1926. Renting a farmhouse he later buys, Monet designs a pond, redesigns the garden, and begins to paint some of his most recognisable images of water lilies, flower beds and the Japanese footbridge.

International

The Brooklyn Bridge opens in New York, connecting the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn, stretching 1825 metres over the East River. One of the oldest suspension bridges in America, it was the largest in the world upon completion. Designed by the John Augustus Roebling's engineering firm, the bridge is built from limestone, granite and Rosendale natural cement, in gothic style.

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Martin Hopkinson

24 August 2018, 09:54

This, or less probably the painting in Dover Museum , was in the 1902 West Ham and Stratford Picture Exhibition