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Henry Bone

1 of 7 portraits by William Bone Sr

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Henry Bone

by William Bone Sr
watercolour on ivory, arched top, 1828
8 in. x 5 3/4 in. (203 mm x 143 mm)
Purchased, 1988
Primary Collection
NPG 6001

Sitterback to top

  • Henry Bone (1755-1834), Enamel painter. Sitter in 6 portraits, Artist or producer associated with 677 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • William Bone Sr (1792-1846), Artist. Artist or producer associated with 7 portraits.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 64
  • Walker, Richard, Miniatures: 300 Years of the English Miniature, 1998, p. 91 Read entry

    Henry Bone was the senior member of a family specialising in enamel copies of portraits and Old Masters. Most of the great collectors in England vied with each other to have copies of their favourite pictures made by the Bone family, one of the advantages being that, once the enamel process was completed, the colours never faded, as they did with oil or watercolour. A further advantage lay in the preliminary drawings, which still exist in the library of the National Portrait Gallery and give important details of ownership and provenance (Walpole Society, LXI, 1999). This portrait, however, is in watercolour, and was painted by his eldest son, William. It shows the artist sitting in a Regency armchair, holding glasses and a book (The Elizabethan Gallery), and in the background a group of enamel copies of Elizabethan portraits of which a large number are now at Kingston Lacy, Dorset.

Events of 1828back to top

Current affairs

Duke of Wellington becomes Prime Minister.
Madhouse Act attempts to regulate asylums and ensure new arrivals are genuinely insane.
Repeal of the Test Acts removes political restrictions from dissenters, allowing them to hold public office.

Art and science

London Zoological Gardens open in Regent's Park. They provide both entertainment and a supply of exotic specimens for naturalists and anatomists such as Richard Owen who becomes a European authority on the subject.

International

Daniel O'Connell is elected Member of Parliament for County Clare but as a Catholic is not permitted to take his seat.

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