Ormond: Thomas Slingsby Duncombe (1796-1861)

Extract from an out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue, Richard Ormond, Early Victorian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1973, pp.150-1. Subject to funding, it is hoped to make the full text of this catalogue available online.

Thomas Slingsby Duncombe (1796-1861)
Radical politician; served in the Army till 1819; MP from 1826; an active member of the radical party; defended Lord Durham, 1838; presented Chartist petition, 1842; helped in Prince Louis Napoleon's escape from Ham; worked on behalf of Italian and Hungarian independence.

1651a by James Warren Childe, 1836
Pencil, watercolour and body colour on paper, 10 5/8 x 8 1/8 in. (270 x 207 mm), healthy complexion, brown eyes, black hair and whiskers. Dressed in a dark stock, white shirt, yellow waistcoat, and dark morning coat. Pale brown and blue background.

Signed in pencil (lower right): J W Childe/ 135 Strand. Autograph in ink (along the bottom): Thomas Slingsby Duncombe/ Novr 19th 1836

Collections: Presented by Lovat Fraser, 1912.

Exhibitions: Possibly the portrait by Childe exhibited RA 1842 (907).

4026(20) by Count Alfred D'Orsay, 1839
Pencil and black chalk, with touches of red on cheek and lips, on paper, 11 1/4 x 8 1/4 in. (285 x 209 mm)

Signed and dated (lower right): A. D’Orsay/ fecit/ Oct. 1839/ London. Inscribed (lower centre): T. Duncombe, Esq MP.

Collections: Purchased, 1957. See Drawings of Men About Town, 1832-48, by Count D'Orsay.

Iconography
A drawing by Wilkins (possibly F.W. Wilkin) of 1824 was in the collection of Thomas H. Duncombe, exhibited SKM 1868 (391); Duncombe is represented in 'The Reform Banquet, 1832' by B.R. Haydon, in the collection of Lady Mary Howick, etched by F. Bromley, published J.C. Bromley, 1835 (example in NPG); a watercolour by Miss M.A. Chalon was exhibited RA 1838 (989); busts by A. Hone and W. Behnes were exhibited RA 1843 (1452), and 1844 (1376); woodcuts were published ILN, vol.1, 1842, p.180, and vol.5, 1844, p.5; there are various engravings (examples in NPG and British Museum).

Abbreviations
ILN Illustration London News
RA Royal Academy
SKM Third Exhibition of National Portraits, South Kensington Museum, 1868