William Pitt

1 portrait

Tate; on loan to the National Portrait Gallery, London

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William Pitt

studio of John Hoppner
oil on canvas, circa 1805 or after
55 1/2 in. x 42 1/2 in. (1410 mm x 1080 mm)
Lent by Tate Gallery, 1954
Primary Collection
NPG L267

On display in Room 18 on Floor 3 at the National Portrait Gallery

Sitterback to top

  • William Pitt (1759-1806), Prime Minister. Sitter associated with 174 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • John Hoppner (1758-1810), Painter. Artist or producer associated with 217 portraits, Sitter in 13 portraits.

This portraitback to top

This studio copy of Hoppner's portrait depicts Pitt a year before he died of exhaustion and drink, aged only forty-six. 'A vile picture,' his friend William Wilberforce called it, 'his face anxious, diseased, reddened with wine, and soured . . . by disappointment. Poor fellow, how unlike my youthful Pitt !'

Linked publicationsback to top

Events of 1805back to top

Current affairs

Nelson's state funeral is held at St Paul's. An occasion for an outpouring of national grief and patriotism, the grand ceremony built on the cult of Nelson which had emerged in the years before his death.

Art and science

Mary Tighe publishes Pysche or the Legend of Love, a romantic allegory in the fashionable medieval revival style, admired by both Keats and Shelley.
The 'poems of Ossian' are officially declared a fake and a great literary scandal ends as Scottish poet James Macpherson is exposed as the forger of the third century bard's epic works.

International

Battle of Trafalgar. Napoleon's ultimate plan to invade England from Boulogne with 100,000 men is thwarted by superior British naval power. Nelson dies in the closing moments of battle having been wounded by a French sniper, but survives long enough to learn that a decisive victory has been won.

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