John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford

Inscriptionback to top

Inscribed in ink lower right: I shall have another/opportunity soon and with initials in pencil: EL and another erased line; on the back in ink: sketch by E Landseer/of the/Duke of Bedford/Given to John W Turner first Professor of Surgery/Edin University (last two words nearly illegible); a label on the old backboard, now in NPG archive, is inscribed in ink: Sketch of/Duke of Bedford/done and presented/by Landseer to/J. W. Turner at Doune/of Rothiemurches 1831.

This portraitback to top

This is one of many drawings of Bedford and his family made between Landseer’s arrival at Woburn aged eighteen and the death of the Duchess in 1853. He was drawn at the Doune, the Duke’s hunting lodge in Rothiemurchus deer forest in Inverness, where no doubt Professor Turner was a fellow guest.

Physical descriptionback to top

Head and shoulders profile to left wearing spectacles and writing with quill pen.

Provenanceback to top

Professor John William Turner of Edinburgh University; Royal Academy of Arts and sold to the NPG through Maas Gallery 1982.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Walker, Regency Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, 1985, 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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