Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool

© National Portrait Gallery, London

2 Likes voting
is closed

Thanks for Liking

Please Like other favourites!
If they inspire you please support our work.

Buy a print Buy a greetings card Make a donation Close

Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool

by Sir Thomas Lawrence
oil on canvas, 1793-1796
50 in. x 40 in. (1270 mm x 1016 mm) overall
Accepted in lieu of tax by H.M. Government and allocated to the Gallery, 1994
Primary Collection
NPG 6307

On display in Room 18 on Floor 3 at the National Portrait Gallery

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830), Portrait painter, collector and President of the Royal Academy. Artist or producer associated with 696 portraits, Sitter in 25 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Lawrence's portrait depicts the rising statesman next to a bas-relief of his hero, Demosthenes, the great Athenian orator. The image was engraved in 1801 when he was Foreign Secretary and about to negotiate the Peace of Amiens (1802). Succeeding his father as Lord Liverpool in 1808, he strengthened the British economy and encouraged the liberal policies of Canning, Huskisson and Peel. But he was also notorious for passing the Six Acts (1819), a series of unpopular 'gagging acts' which limited personal freedom and controlled the chance of radical uprising.

Related worksback to top

  • NPG D35205: Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (source portrait)

Linked publicationsback to top

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Events of 1793back to top

Current affairs

Whig MP Charles Grey enters a motion for parliamentary reform but is defeated in the House of Commons.

Art and science

Radical philosopher William Godwin publishes Political Justice, an inflamatory document that promoted rational anarchism. This crystallised a wider feeling that a new era of world peace and progress was beginning.
Sir William Beechey is appointed Portrait Painter to her Majesty, Queen Charlotte.

International

Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette are executed and the Reign of Terror begins.
France declares war on Britain, Holland and then Spain. William Pitt addresses the House of Commons and Britain hesitantly joins the first coalition of anti-revolutionary European states to oppose the French threat.
Attack on Corsica in which Captain Horatio Nelson loses an eye.

Comments back to top

We are currently unable to accept new comments, but any past comments are available to read below.

If you need information from us, please use our Archive enquiry service . Please note that we cannot provide valuations. You can buy a print or greeting card of most illustrated portraits. Select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Buy a Print button. Prices start at around £6 for unframed prints, £16 for framed prints. If you wish to license an image, select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Use this image button, or contact our Rights and Images service. We digitise over 8,000 portraits a year and we cannot guarantee being able to digitise images that are not already scheduled.