Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd

This portraitback to top

A different portrait by Pickersgill, showing Talfourd in ordinary costume, is in the Middle Temple, possibly the portrait exhibited RA, 1851 (128), described by the Art Journal (1851), p 155, as a half-length, standing figure. This or another portrait was in the same sale as the NPG portrait (lot 310), and so were six letters from Talfourd to the artist (lot 82g).

Physical descriptionback to top

Close inspection of this portrait, which is at present on loan to the Law Courts, was impossible. Talfourd is shown in a wig and the red and white robes of a judge, holding a white piece of paper and a quill pen. He is seated in a red-covered armchair, against which a brown leather-bound book is leaning. Background colour dark brown.

Provenanceback to top

Pickersgill Sale, Christie's, 17 July 1875 (lot 309), bought U. J. Shaw-Lefevre, and purchased from him, 1876.


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.

View all known portraits for Henry William Pickersgill

View all known portraits for Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd