Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford

This portraitback to top

See NPG 3627, of which this is a rather wretched derivation. It was apparently taken from Burke’s second engraving, published on 20 September 1775, showing the same head, but with a plain coat wearing the ribbon and badge (here omitted) of the Garter. [1] A better miniature version, sold from Wroxton Abbey, Sotheby’s, 27-28 July 1922, lot 138, is in the British Museum (H. Tait ed., The Art of the Jeweller, a Catalogue of the Hull Grundy Gift to the British Museum, 1984, no.495). [2]

Footnotesback to top

1) Cf. J. C. Smith, British Mezzotint Portraits, 1878-84, 7. There was also a reduced (inferior) oval plate by R. Pollard - possibly related to the unattributed half-length ‘sketch’ of North, wearing a red coat, in the Sheffield Park sale, Christie’s, 11 December 1909, lot 70.
2) A similar miniature, with the Garter ribbon but without the badge, was sketched by Scharf at Wroxton Abbey in 1866 (Sir George Scharf's Sketch Books, 59/165).

Physical descriptionback to top

Light brown eyes, powdered hair, brown suit with brass buttons and the blue ribbon of the Garter; black background.

Provenanceback to top

Purchased from T. H. Parker 1869.


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 Nathaniel Dance (later Sir Nathaniel Holland, Bt)

View all known portraits for Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford