First Previous 1 OF 2 NextLast

Robert Henley, 1st Earl of Northington

1 of 2 portraits of Robert Henley, 1st Earl of Northington

Robert Henley, 1st Earl of Northington, by Thomas Hudson, after 1761 -NPG 2166 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Mid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue

Robert Henley, 1st Earl of Northington

studio of Thomas Hudson
after 1761
49 in. x 39 1/4 in. (1245 mm x 997 mm)
NPG 2166

This portraitback to top

NPG 2166 is a studio version of the portrait by Hudson exhibited at the Society of Artists, London, in May 1761 (51, the present Lord Chancellor) and engraved (undated) by James McArdell. [1] This was either the portrait now at All Souls, Oxford, [2] or that belonging to the sitter’s descendants in 1972. NPG 2166 which, according to the provenance, was painted for the sitter’s family, differs from both these portraits in displaying on the back of the chair an Earl’s coronet, to which Henley became entitled in 1764. Another version, similar to NPG 2166, was with Leger in 1970, and a half length also remained with the sitter’s descendants in 1972.
The only known portrait of Northington, the image was engraved as a half length by James Miller c.1760 (as Lord Henley, Keeper of the Great Seal; the plate intended for Smollett’s History of England, II, 1760); anon. before 1764 (as Lord Henley, Lord Chancellor); anon. 1764-66 for the General Mag. (as Lord Northington, Lord Chancellor), and by W. C. Edwards 1831.

Footnotesback to top

1) E. G. Miles, Thomas Hudson: Portraitist to the British Establishment, University Microfilms, 1977, II, p 153, suggested it was painted between January and May 1761, following Henley’s appointment as lord chancellor in January, but he had been entitled to bear the Great Seal from 1757 and Miller’s crude engraving, based on the Hudson portrait, was to have been published in 1760.
2) Bearing the inscribed date 1761; Mrs R. L. Poole, Catalogue of Portraits in the possession of the University, Colleges and City and County of Oxford, II, p 193, no.46; exhibited Kenwood 1979 (63), illus.

Referenceback to top

Miles 1977
E. G. Miles, Thomas Hudson: Portraitist to the British Establishment, University Microfilms, 1977, no.141.

Physical descriptionback to top

Grey eyes, white powdered wig; holding the great seal, wearing the lord chancellor’s black gown with gold trim; red-velvet chair with the carved coronet of an Earl.

Provenanceback to top

By descent to the 6th Baron Henley, by whom presented 1927.1

1 The sitter’s daughter married 1783 1st Baron Henley; the Northington title became extinct in 1786. In a letter of 26 May 1927 (NPG archive), Lord Henley described NPG 2166 as ‘a replica, which I found under an old staircase here [at Watford Court]’.

Exhibitionsback to top

Second special exhibition of National Portraits (William and Mary to MDCCC), South Kensington, 1867 (446) lent by the 3rd Baron Henley.1 Royal Courts of Justice 1966-.

1 The Arundel Society photograph of the portrait in that exhibition (NPG archive) just reveals the Earl's coronet on the back of the chair which, together with the fall of the lace cuff, distinguishes NPG 2166 from other versions.


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.