Henry Fiennes Pelham-Clinton, 2nd Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne

This portraitback to top

NPG 2504 was given as a portrait of the 1st Duke of Newcastle, the correct identification first appearing in the NPG Summary catalogue of 1970.
It is a studio version of the portrait belonging to the University of Nottingham, formerly at Clumber House, [1] which shows an arched window on the left, as does Hoare’s elaborate chalk drawing of the finished painting in the British Museum (1894.04.17.4). [2] Hoare painted several portraits for the Pelham family, [3] and it was reported in March 1752 that he had been ‘sent for ... to draw Mr. Pelham’s whole family, they preferring him to any Painter in London’. [4]
A half-length version was sold Christie’s South Kensington, 8 June 2000, lot 42 (as a Gentleman by a Follower of Hudson).

Footnotesback to top

1) Clumber House cat., 1923, no.76; illus. The Newcastles of Clumber, University of Nottingham, 1992, front.
2) Described by L. Binyon, Catalogue of Drawings by British Artists in the British Museum, II, p 314, no.14, as Frederick, Prince of Wales.
3) See J. Kerslake, National Portrait Gallery, Early Georgian Portraits, I, pp 193-94 (NPG 757), 208-09 (NPG 221); see also E. Newby, William Hoare of Bath, exhibition catalogue, Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, 1990, no.14a.
4) Letter from John Brown, 7 March 1752, to Humphrey Senhouse; E. Hughes, North Country Life, II, 1965, p 93; and cf. G. Vertue, Note Books, III, Wal. Soc., XXII, 1934, p 161.

Physical descriptionback to top

Blue eyes, white powdered wig, in ceremonial Garter robes, his plumed hat on the green tablecloth by his side.

Provenanceback to top

Lord Edward William Pelham-Clinton (d. 1907);¹ Miss Lillie Belle Randell,² by whom bequeathed in memory of her sister, Mrs Cornelius Garrison (d. 1925), 1931.

¹ As stated in a note from G. W. B. Croft Lyons, a friend of Miss Randell, to Milner, c.June 1925 (NPG archive): ‘Thomas Holles Pelham Duke of Newcastle 1693-1768 in Peers-robes formerly the property of General Pelham Clinton’; and see NPG 75th Annual Report, 1932, p 3.
² Daughter of a Missouri landowner who had lived with her sister Mrs Cornelius Garrison (d. 1925) in Grosvenor Square.

Exhibitionsback to top

Foreign Office 1932-82.


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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