Richard Lovell Edgeworth

Inscriptionback to top

Signed and dated lower right: HH/1785; cleaned 1935.¹
Label inside frame is inscribed, in brown and black watercolour: Richard Lovell Edgeworth/Horace Hone/Pinxit 1785.

¹ Label verso: Mildew removed in Oct 1935 by Mrs Minney-Wynn during my ownership his (Helena Gibbons) Grt Grt grand daughter. A second inscription, verso, reads: This miniature of [Edgeworth] was opened & cleaned Oct.r 1935 ... Helena Gibbons present owner had cleaning done & mildew removed -.

This portraitback to top

Probably painted in Dublin where Edgeworth was working from 1782.

Referenceback to top

Walker 1998
R. J. B. Walker, Miniatures in the National Portrait Gallery, 1998, no.72

Physical descriptionback to top

Blue-grey eyes, powdered wig, grey coat, green waistcoat.

Provenanceback to top

By descent from the sitter; in 1870 with his granddaughter, P. E. Gibbons;¹ Helena Gibbons by 1935; Miss Alice Blandford, by descent to her niece, Mrs John Fletcher,² by whom sold Christie’s, 10 February 1976, lot 34,³ bought Leggatt for the NPG.

¹ Label verso: ... left in Mrs Cornegies/care 1870 belongs to/P E Gibbons/Grandaughter/of the above/R L Edgeworth.
² Mrs Fletcher wrote that the miniature was left to her mother (née Beddoes) by an aunt called Miss Alice Blandford (note in NPG archives).
³ Sold with five other Edgeworth family miniatures; see also NPG 5070, Thomas Beddoes by S. T. Roche; R. J. B. Walker, National Portrait Gallery, Regency Portraits, I, p 31, II, pl.66.

Exhibitionsback to top

Master Drawings from the National Portrait Gallery, Tulsa, Miami, Washington, Ottawa, NPG, Manchester, Carlisle, Canterbury, 1993-95 (27).


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, National Portrait Gallery, 2004, 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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