Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Bt

1 portrait of Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Bt

Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Bt, by Matthew Noble, 1851 -NPG 596 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Early Victorian Portraits Catalogue

Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Bt

by Matthew Noble
1851
30 7/8 in. (784 mm) high
NPG 596

Inscriptionback to top

Incised on the back below the shoulders: PEEL.
Incised on the back of the base: M. NOBLE. SC./LONDON./1851.

This portraitback to top

The head in this bust is similar to the life-size Noble bust of 1850 in the collection of Earl Peel, apparently bt. in at the Peel sale, Robinson, Fisher and Harding, 6-7 December 1917 (lot 192), exhibited RA, 1851 (1379). Another marble version is in the Houses of Parliament (dated 1851), and two identical cabinet versions are in the collection of Earl Peel (dated 1850), and the NPG (dated 1851, NPG 596a). All four of the last-mentioned busts show Peel in conventional costume, whereas NPG 596 shows him with a bare neck, and loose drapery across his shoulders. Noble did several statues of Peel, in which he made use of the same head as represented in the four marble busts; it seems unlikely that Noble ever received a sitting from the life. A plaster model possibly related to these busts was at Elswick Hall, Newcastle, listed in Catalogue of Lough and Noble Models at Elswick Hall (c.1928), p 66 (234).

Provenanceback to top

Noble Sale, Christie's, 7 June 1879 (lot 189), bought W. Boore, and purchased from him 1879.

Exhibitionsback to top

Art Treasures of the United Kingdom, Manchester, 1857, 'Sculpture' (129).


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Ormond, Early Victorian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1973, 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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