Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool
1 portrait
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool
by Sir Thomas Lawrence
oil on canvas, 1793-1796
50 in. x 40 in. (1270 mm x 1016 mm) overall
Accepted in lieu of tax by H.M. Government and allocated to the Gallery, 1994
Primary Collection
NPG 6307
On display in Room 18 on Floor 3 at the National Portrait Gallery
Sitterback to top
- Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (1770-1828), Prime Minister. Sitter associated with 59 portraits.
Artistback to top
- Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830), Portrait painter, collector and President of the Royal Academy. Artist or producer associated with 698 portraits, Sitter in 25 portraits.
This portraitback to top
Lawrence's portrait depicts the rising statesman next to a bas-relief of his hero, Demosthenes, the great Athenian orator. The image was engraved in 1801 when he was Foreign Secretary and about to negotiate the Peace of Amiens (1802). Succeeding his father as Lord Liverpool in 1808, he strengthened the British economy and encouraged the liberal policies of Canning, Huskisson and Peel. But he was also notorious for passing the Six Acts (1819), a series of unpopular 'gagging acts' which limited personal freedom and controlled the chance of radical uprising.
Linked publicationsback to top
- Smartify image discovery app
- Essay by Richard Holmes, Thomas Lawrence Portraits, 2010 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 21 October 2010 - 23 January 2011), p. 35
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 384
Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top
- Thomas Lawrence Portraits (21 October 2010 - 23 January 2011)
Events of 1793back to top
Current affairs
Whig MP Charles Grey enters a motion for parliamentary reform but is defeated in the House of Commons.Art and science
Radical philosopher William Godwin publishes Political Justice, an inflamatory document that promoted rational anarchism. This crystallised a wider feeling that a new era of world peace and progress was beginning.Sir William Beechey is appointed Portrait Painter to her Majesty, Queen Charlotte.
International
Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette are executed and the Reign of Terror begins.France declares war on Britain, Holland and then Spain. William Pitt addresses the House of Commons and Britain hesitantly joins the first coalition of anti-revolutionary European states to oppose the French threat.
Attack on Corsica in which Captain Horatio Nelson loses an eye.
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