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Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour

(1848-1930), Prime Minister and philosopher

20th Century Portraits Catalogue Entry

Sitter in 140 portraits
Born at Whittingehame House, East Lothian and educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge; Balfour first made his mark as a philosopher, publishing A Defence of Philosophic Doubt in 1879; he entered politics in 1874 through the patronage of his uncle, Lord Salisbury, as a Conservative member for Hertford; succeeded Salisbury as Prime Minister in 1902 but was unable to keep together a party divided by issues of Free Trade and Protectionism and resigned in 1905; during the First World War he worked as First Lord of the Admiralty and, from 1916 to 1919, as Foreign Secretary; Balfour continued in politics until the age of eighty, having served for twenty-seven years as a member of the cabinet.

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Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour

by Eveleen Myers (née Tennant)
platinum print, early 1890s
NPG Ax68779

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Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour

by Alexander Bassano
12 x 10 inch glass plate negative, circa 1900
NPG x95736

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Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour

by Alexander Bassano
12 x 10 inch glass plate negative, circa 1900
NPG x95737

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Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour

by Alexander Bassano
half-plate glass negative, 1900?
NPG x96264

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Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour

by George Charles Beresford
dry-plate glass negative, 1902
NPG x6430

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Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour

by H. Walter Barnett
half-plate glass negative, 1903
NPG x76141

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Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour

by H. Walter Barnett
whole-plate glass negative, 1903
NPG x81440

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Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour

by H. Walter Barnett
glass negative, November 1903
NPG x81445

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'Silver Wedding Presentation to the Speaker and Mrs Lowther'

by Benjamin Stone
platinum print, 3 May 1911
NPG x135697

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Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour

by London Stereoscopic & Photographic Company
halftone reproduction, circa 1913
NPG x183

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Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour

by Vandyk
glass negative, 10 August 1916
NPG x29045

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The Imperial War Cabinet

by Vandyk
10 x 12 inch glass negative, 25 June 1918
NPG x32123

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Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour

by Walter Stoneman
negative, 1921
NPG x376

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Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour

by Walter Stoneman
negative, 1921
NPG x67279

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Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour

by Walter Stoneman
negative, 1921
NPG x67280

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Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour

by Unknown photographer
platinum print
NPG Ax38789

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Vanity Fair Panel no. 2

by Sir Leslie Ward, and Carlo Pellegrini, and 'Hay', and Théobald Chartran ('T'), and Liborio Prosperi ('Lib')
chromolithographs pasted onto wooden panel, assembled from prints published 1881-1889
NPG D39292

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Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour

by Minnie Lee Everett (M. Cormack), printed by Thomas Ross & Son, published by Paul and Dominic Colnaghi & Co, after Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
mezzotint, published 25 May 1892
NPG D49666

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