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George Farmer

2 of 10 portraits by Charles Grignion

George Farmer, by Charles Grignion, 1778 -NPG 2149 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Mid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue

George Farmer

by Charles Grignion
1778
36 in. x 27 1/4 in. (914 mm x 692 mm)
NPG 2149

This portraitback to top

A finished chalk drawing by Grignion is in the British Museum (1868.08.08.1282), the same size as the mezzotint plate by Murphy. A version of NPG 2149 was sold Christie’s, 17 February 1984, lot 94, from the collection of the Rev O. F. Raymond, possibly the replica with W. M. Sabin in 1926. [1] A reduced and pedestrian oval version, probably copied from Murphy’s engraving, belonged to Leonard O’Malley in 1912; [2] this or another was in a private collection, Montreal, in 1955; [3] a crude derivative enamel (set in the lid of a patch-box) was sold Sotheby’s, Sussex, 10 June 1990, lot 2998.

Footnotesback to top

1) Note by C. K. Adams (NPG archive).
2) Photograph NPG archive.
3) Photograph NPG archive.

Physical descriptionback to top

Brown eyes, powdered hair, wearing a captain’s uniform.

Provenanceback to top

By descent to the sitter’s granddaughter, Miss Sophia Aphra Farmer (d. 1875);1 her executor, George Boydell, from whom bought 1877 by Henry Taylor; bequeathed by him 1927.2

1 E. B. Barker of Chester, one of her executors, sent Scharf a photograph of NPG 2149 on 6 July 1875.
2 A label written by Taylor, previously on the verso of NPG 2149, reads: ‘the original picture purchased by me Henry Taylor 13 Jany 1877 from my Partner George Boydell the nephew (by marriage) and Executor of Miss Sophia Aphra Farmer of Newgate House, Chester, the Grand-daughter of Capt. Farmer’. See also Notes and Queries, 7/IV, 1887, pp 473-74.

Exhibitionsback to top

RA 1778 (133, 'Portrait of a Naval officer, Kit-cat');1 Grosvenor Museum, Chester, c.1925;2 Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth, 1975-2002.

1 Identified as Farmer by Henry Taylor in his MS notes (NPG archive), but the evidence is not known.
2 A newspaper cutting on file refers.

Reproductionsback to top

J. Murphy 1780 ( ... Charles Grignion Jnr pinxit 1778 and in an Action with a French Frigate of Superior Force after having silenced her Fire, Gloriously perished ... ).


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.

View all known portraits for George Farmer