John Bright

1 portrait

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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John Bright

by Rupert Potter
carbon print, September 1879
11 1/2 in. x 6 7/8 in. (292 mm x 176 mm)
Given by Rupert Potter, before 1914
Primary Collection
NPG P862

Sitterback to top

  • John Bright (1811-1889), Statesman and orator. Sitter associated with 98 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • Rupert Potter (1832-1914), Barrister and photographer; father of Beatrix Potter. Artist or producer associated with 29 portraits, Sitter in 2 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Potter registered two photographs from this sitting for copyright in 1889 and exhibited one as a carbon enlargement at the annual exhibition of the Photographic Society of Great Britain (later the Royal Photographic Society) during the same year. The similarity in pose to that in Millais's portrait of Bright suggests Millais used this photograph while completing his painting. The finished painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1880.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Rogers, Malcolm, Camera Portraits, 1989 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 20 October 1989 - 21 January 1990), p. 99 Read entry

    Rupert Potter and his daughter Beatrix (better known as the writer and illustrator of the Peter Rabbit books) were both keen photographers. His favourite subjects were landscapes, but friendship with Sir John Everett Millais led him to portraiture, and, according to Beatrix, Millais thought that 'the professionals aren't fit to hold a candle to Papa'. So much so that he often used Potter's photographs as the basis for his portraits.

    This was the case with the radical orator and Liberal statesman Bright. In the autumn of 1879 he and Millais were both guests of Potter in Scotland for the salmon-fishing, and this photograph was probably taken at about that time, for Millais follows it closely in his portrait of Bright exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1880 (Private Collection). The photograph conveys all those qualities which made Bright, like his associate, Cobden (with whom he led the Anti-Corn Law League), such a powerful representative of the manufacturing classes in British politics, and an advocate of reform. He was an idealist who, in all that he did, felt himself 'above the level of party', and never feared unpopularity, as, for instance, in condemning the Crimean War.

  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 76

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Events of 1879back to top

Current affairs

Women's education continues to grow, with the founding of women's colleges in Oxford. Somerville College took its name from the late Scottish scientific writer Mary Somerville. Lady Margaret Hall was founded by Elizabeth Wordsworth, great niece of the poet, and named after Margaret Beaufort, a medieval noblewoman and mother of Henry VII.

Art and science

Edison invents the first practical electric light bulb.
The first prehistoric paintings, dating back 14,000 years, are discovered in the Altamira caves in Northern Spain when a young girl notices paintings of bison on the ceilings.
The French actress Sarah Bernhardt, already acclaimed for roles in plays such as Racine's Phèdre and Victor Hugo's Hernani, celebrates a successful season at London's Gaiety Theatre.

International

Anglo-Zulu war fought between British forces and the Zulus, after disputes between the Boers and Zulu leader Cetshywayo over the Utrecht border attracted British intervention. The British victory marked the end of the independent Zulu nation, although the Zulu's initial victory at Isandhlwana was a major surprise. The Battle of Rorke's Drift was dramatised in the film Zulu, starring Michael Caine, in 1964.

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