William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath

Inscriptionback to top

The paper addressed: To/the Hounon … William Pulteny Esq/Secretary at Warr; signed, lower right: GK/1717.

This portraitback to top

The Kit-Cat Club portrait. A version from Northwick Park (Christie’s, 25 June 1965, lot 52; originally given by the sitter to the Earl of Chesterfield) is inscribed: How can I Pulteny Chesterfield forget/While Roman Spirit Charms, or Attic Wit. Simon engraved a three-quarter-length version (J. Chaloner Smith, British Mezzotinto Portraits, 128).
For portraits by Reynolds of 1757 and 1761 (NPG 35 and 337) and a study of Bath’s iconography, see J. Kerslake, National Portrait Gallery, Early Georgian Portraits, 1977, pp 13-17.

Referenceback to top

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 21.

Stewart 1983
J. D. Stewart, Godfrey Kneller, 1983, no.76.

Reproductionsback to top

J. Faber II 1732 (J. Chaloner Smith, British Mezzotinto Portraits, 208/33) as William Pulteney Esqr.


This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685–1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

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