Frances Trollope

1 portrait

Frances Trollope, by Auguste Hervieu, circa 1832 -NPG 3906 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Early Victorian Portraits Catalogue

Frances Trollope

by Auguste Hervieu
circa 1832
6 in. x 5 in. (152 mm x 127 mm)
NPG 3906

This portraitback to top

A water-colour copy of the NPG portrait by Miss Lucy Adams is in the British Museum, engraved by W. Holl, published Fisher, 1845 (example in NPG), for Cooke-Taylor's 'National Portrait Gallery'. An engraving by J. Brown, clearly derived from the NPG portrait, but differing in details, was published H. Colburn, 1839 (example in NPG), for the New Monthly Magazine. According to F. E. Trollope, the NPG picture was not the portrait of Mrs Trollope by Hervieu exhibited RA, 1833 (361). The latter was a life-size, three-quarter length painting, engraved by W. Greatbach (example in the NPG), as the frontispiece to Mrs Trollope's Domestic Manners of the Americans (1839 edition). The engraving shows that the large portrait was quite different in type from the NPG picture. It belonged to T. A. Trollope, but was lost by him while moving from Florence to London. Mrs Trollope sent a portrait of herself by Hervieu to the Princesse de Metternich, probably a copy or version of one of the two types already discussed. The recipient's letter of thanks is quoted by T. A. Trollope: ‘Je remercie M. Hervieu de l'avoir fait aussi ressemblant. Et je vous assure, chère Madame Trollope, que rien ne pouvait me toucher aussi vivement et me faire autant de plaisir que ce souvenir venant de vous.' Two portrait miniatures by Hervieu, both dated 1832 (which is probably the date of the NPG portrait of Mrs Trollope), representing two of her sons, probably Thomas Adolphus and Anthony, were purchased from the executors of Miss Muriel Rose Trollope by the NPG, 1954. Their identity has not been finally established. Hervieu was a close friend of the Trollope family. He accompanied Mrs Trollope to America and illustrated her Domestic Manners of the Americans (first edition, 1832), and several of her later novels. His relations with her are discussed by J. F. McDermott, 'Auguste Hervieu in America', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, LI (1958), 169-90.

Referenceback to top

Trollope 1887
T. A. Trollope, What I Remember (1887), II, 334-5.

Trollope 1895
F. E. Trollope, Frances Trollope: Her Life and Literary Work (1895), I, 161, 178.

Physical descriptionback to top

Healthy complexion, light brown/grey(?) eyes, brown hair. Dressed in a brown costume with a white lace bib, kerchief, and cap, tied at the neck by a blue ribbon. Two blue bows in her hair under the cap, and a blue bracelet; seated on a plum-red sofa, with a small partly open box just visible on the left, probably a work-box (this part of the composition is not clear). Background colour brown.

Provenanceback to top

The sitter; by descent to her great-granddaughter, Miss Muriel Rose Trollope, and bequeathed by her, 1954.

Reproductionsback to top

F. E. Trollope, Frances Trollope: Her Life and Literary Work (1895), I, frontispiece.


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 Frances Trollope