Early Georgian Portraits Catalogue

McArdell's engraving of a portrait by Gainsborough can be closely dated from the lettering which refers to Clive as Baron Plassey, created 1762, and omits the Bath, received 1764, shown in the Dance (NPG 39) and in the whole length statue by Scheemakers in the India Office commissioned in 1760 and completed by 1764. [1] Lady Clive sat to Gainsborough in 1787, presumably for a whole length, and an unfinished portrait was in the Gainsborough Dupont sale, Christie's, 10 April 1797, lot 32. [2] The portrait of Clive himself which must have been earlier, as also 'The Family Piece' listed in the 1771 Powis inventory, remain untraced. [3] An unusual portrait (J. Steegman, A Survey of Portraits in Welsh Houses, 1957-62, 49) with a house in the background, once attributed to Reynolds, was given by Lord Powis to the National Army Museum in 1963. It also shows the Bath.

1) W. Foster, A Descriptive Catalogue ... The India Office, 4th edition, 1924 (53).
2) The authorship of lots 1-32 is ambiguous in the sales catalogue although Sir Ellis K. Waterhouse, Gainsborough, 1958, p 60 (154-5) treats lot 32 as by Gainsborough.
3) Sir Ellis K. Waterhouse, Gainsborough, 1958, p 60.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Kerslake, Early Georgian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1977, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.