Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe

This portraitback to top

NPG 75 shows the elderly hero standing against a background of stormy skies and naval engagements (there is more than a touch of Lear on the heath about his staring eyes). [1] Possibly a reduced version of a lost painting, NPG 75 may have been painted expressly for engraving, being the same size as the plate by S. W. Reynolds published in 1799 (ten weeks after Howe’s death), but the absence of Garter insignia presumably indicates that it was painted before 1797.

Footnotesback to top

1) Compare Singleton’s Sir Edward Vernon (National Maritime Museum, BHC 3070), another small whole-length, engraved in 1791.

Physical descriptionback to top

Blue eyes, his own white hair, wearing the uniform of an admiral, his hat in his left hand, the King’s 1794 medal on a pink ribbon at his breast;¹ behind him a French and British ship in combat.

¹ His actual medal illus. A. French, ed., The Earl and Countess Howe by Gainsborough, exhibition catalogue, Kenwood, 1988, p 90; it was presented to him on 26 June 1794.

Provenanceback to top

Bought ‘from an artist many Years ago’ by (William) Frederick Harrison,¹ from whom purchased 1859.

¹ Letter of April 1859; NPG archive. Frederick’s brother Robert Harrison was the London Library Librarian 1857-93.

Exhibitionsback to top

Regency Portraits, Kenwood, 1986; The Earl and Countess Howe by Gainsborough, Kenwood, 1988 (A32).

Reproductionsback to top

S. W. Reynolds 1799.<sup>1

1</sup> Published 1 November 1799 (Howe had died on 5 August); see A. Whitman, S. W. Reynolds, 1903, pp 54-55, no.155.


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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