Mid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue
Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford (1732-1792), Prime Minister
- Gallery portraits
- All known portraits
- Biography and References
1743
Painting by Enoch Seeman, one of three young boys, with his step brother, William, Viscount Lewisham (b. 1731, later Earl of Dartmouth) and half-brother, Augustus Francis North. Private collection, from the Wroxton Abbey sale, Christie’s, 11 July 1930, lot 75.
1753-56
Painting by Pompeo Batoni, see NPG 6180.
1753
Painting by Thomas Jenkins, three-quarter length. ‘ ... before sending away the portraits he had drawn of lord Dartmouth and Lord North, he [Jenkins] found many defects, which it was too late to remedy’ (Jenkins to Dartmouth, Rome, 1 June 1754); on 30 March 1755 he wrote that drawings by ‘Pompeo, Wilson, and myself were sent by the French courier’ (HMC 15th Report, Doubtful Portraits I, 1896, pp 168-69). Dartmouth’s portrait, now untraced, illus. Apollo, XCIX, 1974, p 420.
1757
Painting by Joshua Reynolds, half length. Private collection (D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds, I, 2000, no.1344). Copy sold Sotheby’s, 9 February 1955, lot 124.
1761
Painting by Allan Ramsay, half length, wearing a red suit with (clearly added) the ribbon and badge of the Garter (received in 1773). Parke-Bernet, Los Angeles, 9 March 1977, lot 827 (illus. A. Smart, ed. J. Ingamells, Allan Ramsay, a complete catalogue of his Paintings, 1999, no.407), from the Sheffield Park sale, Christie’s, 11 December 1909, lot 116 as Reynolds. Engraved J. Jones 1787 (as A Ramsay fecit 1761 ...).
c.1763
Painting by Joshua Reynolds, half-length painted oval. Petworth (D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds, I, 2000, no.1345).
1772
Caricature, Boreas, three-quarter length standing (M. D. George, British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, V, 4969).
1773-74
Painting by Nathaniel Dance, see NPG 3627 and NPG 276.
1775
Medal by John Kirk after Gosset, exhibited Society of Artists, London, 1775 (127) as chancellor of Oxford University (L. Brown, A Catalogue of British Historical Medals 1760-1960: The Accession of George III to the Death of William IV, 1980, no.200). Another, or the same, exhibited Society of Artists, London, 1777 (222). A Wedgwood medallion of c.1782 was based on the 1775 medal (illus. R. Reilly and G. Savage, Wedgwood the Portrait Medallions, 1973, p 179).
c.1775
Wax by Isaac Gosset. Sotheby’s 2 June 1975, lot 132.
c.1775?
Marble bust by John Bacon sr., wearing the chancellor’s robe and Garter ribbon. Bodleian Library, Oxford, bequeathed by G. J. Williams 1806 (Mrs R. L. Poole, Catalogue of Portraits in the possession of the University, Colleges and City and County of Oxford, I, p 110). Probably related to the plaster bust with Garter ribbon in the Sheffield Park sale, Christie’s, 11 December 1909, lot 126.
1777
Wax by Robert Stewart, exhibited Society of Artists, London, 1777 (299).
1779-81
Painting by J. S. Copley, The Death of Chatham. A drawing from the head of North attributed to Bartolozzi is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (55.106.8; illus. Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, XIV, 1956, p 126).
c.1780
Medallion by James Tassie, as chancellor of Oxford University. Cast in the Scottish NPG (PG 506).
1782
Etching by J. Sayers, whole-length (M. D. George, British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, V, 6063).
Lord North’s long reign as prime minister ended in March 1782; short-lived governments of Rockingham (March to July 1782) and Shelburne (July 1782 to April 1783) were succeeded, for eight months before the advent of Pitt the younger, by the coalition government of North and Fox, an unlikely partnership which gave rise to a host of political satires - including the etchings by J. Sayers: A Coalition Medal (M. D. George, British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, V, 6183) and a whole length of North with Fox (’Fred O’Daub fecit’; M. D. George, British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, V, 6192), and a drawing by Nathaniel Dance, Immortales et sempiterne amicitiae, the prancing figures of Fox and Burke, sold Phillips, 4 November 1985, lot 25 (see also under Edward Gibbon 'Amateur Drawings').
1798
Engraving by W. Ridley 1798 half length. Plate reissued as by Hopwood 1805, and two reduced anon. plates derived from it. Very near the Sayers etching of 1782.
Pencil drawing by William Grimaldi (Rev. A. Grimaldi, A Catalogue of Paintings, Drawings & Engravings by and after William Grimaldi, 1873, p 49, no.151).
Doubtful Portraits
Painting, three-quarter length, offered to NPG 1882 by C. H. Waters (Sir George Scharf's Trustees' Sketch Books, 4/66), later cut down to an irregular half length, and last sold Sotheby’s NY, 17 July 1997, lot 128.
Miniature attributed to E. Vaughan, 16 November 1976, lot 5 as ‘Thomas, 2nd Earl of Guildford’.
Drawings by J. S. Copley in the Boston Athenaeum, illus. Apollo, CII, 1975, p 469, as North, shows Brocklesby (J. D. Prown, John Singleton Copley, II, p 439, and fig.405 as Ralph Brocklesby; by C. Corbould, engraved C. T. Warren 1791, bust-length oval to left (The Senator); by John Downman in the Victoria and Albert Museum (P.4.1923; probably of his son).
Wax attributed to Samuel Percy, sold Christie’s, 11 December 1978, lot 135, appears too thin to be North and probably shows Frederick, 5th Earl of Guilford.
Engraving after O. Neale, bust length, somewhat resembling the head of North in the satire, The Colossus of the North, 1774 (M. D. George, British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, V, 5242).
This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, National Portrait Gallery, 2004, 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.
Painting by Enoch Seeman, one of three young boys, with his step brother, William, Viscount Lewisham (b. 1731, later Earl of Dartmouth) and half-brother, Augustus Francis North. Private collection, from the Wroxton Abbey sale, Christie’s, 11 July 1930, lot 75.
1753-56
Painting by Pompeo Batoni, see NPG 6180.
1753
Painting by Thomas Jenkins, three-quarter length. ‘ ... before sending away the portraits he had drawn of lord Dartmouth and Lord North, he [Jenkins] found many defects, which it was too late to remedy’ (Jenkins to Dartmouth, Rome, 1 June 1754); on 30 March 1755 he wrote that drawings by ‘Pompeo, Wilson, and myself were sent by the French courier’ (HMC 15th Report, Doubtful Portraits I, 1896, pp 168-69). Dartmouth’s portrait, now untraced, illus. Apollo, XCIX, 1974, p 420.
1757
Painting by Joshua Reynolds, half length. Private collection (D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds, I, 2000, no.1344). Copy sold Sotheby’s, 9 February 1955, lot 124.
1761
Painting by Allan Ramsay, half length, wearing a red suit with (clearly added) the ribbon and badge of the Garter (received in 1773). Parke-Bernet, Los Angeles, 9 March 1977, lot 827 (illus. A. Smart, ed. J. Ingamells, Allan Ramsay, a complete catalogue of his Paintings, 1999, no.407), from the Sheffield Park sale, Christie’s, 11 December 1909, lot 116 as Reynolds. Engraved J. Jones 1787 (as A Ramsay fecit 1761 ...).
c.1763
Painting by Joshua Reynolds, half-length painted oval. Petworth (D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds, I, 2000, no.1345).
1772
Caricature, Boreas, three-quarter length standing (M. D. George, British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, V, 4969).
1773-74
Painting by Nathaniel Dance, see NPG 3627 and NPG 276.
1775
Medal by John Kirk after Gosset, exhibited Society of Artists, London, 1775 (127) as chancellor of Oxford University (L. Brown, A Catalogue of British Historical Medals 1760-1960: The Accession of George III to the Death of William IV, 1980, no.200). Another, or the same, exhibited Society of Artists, London, 1777 (222). A Wedgwood medallion of c.1782 was based on the 1775 medal (illus. R. Reilly and G. Savage, Wedgwood the Portrait Medallions, 1973, p 179).
c.1775
Wax by Isaac Gosset. Sotheby’s 2 June 1975, lot 132.
c.1775?
Marble bust by John Bacon sr., wearing the chancellor’s robe and Garter ribbon. Bodleian Library, Oxford, bequeathed by G. J. Williams 1806 (Mrs R. L. Poole, Catalogue of Portraits in the possession of the University, Colleges and City and County of Oxford, I, p 110). Probably related to the plaster bust with Garter ribbon in the Sheffield Park sale, Christie’s, 11 December 1909, lot 126.
1777
Wax by Robert Stewart, exhibited Society of Artists, London, 1777 (299).
1779-81
Painting by J. S. Copley, The Death of Chatham. A drawing from the head of North attributed to Bartolozzi is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (55.106.8; illus. Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, XIV, 1956, p 126).
c.1780
Medallion by James Tassie, as chancellor of Oxford University. Cast in the Scottish NPG (PG 506).
1782
Etching by J. Sayers, whole-length (M. D. George, British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, V, 6063).
Lord North’s long reign as prime minister ended in March 1782; short-lived governments of Rockingham (March to July 1782) and Shelburne (July 1782 to April 1783) were succeeded, for eight months before the advent of Pitt the younger, by the coalition government of North and Fox, an unlikely partnership which gave rise to a host of political satires - including the etchings by J. Sayers: A Coalition Medal (M. D. George, British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, V, 6183) and a whole length of North with Fox (’Fred O’Daub fecit’; M. D. George, British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, V, 6192), and a drawing by Nathaniel Dance, Immortales et sempiterne amicitiae, the prancing figures of Fox and Burke, sold Phillips, 4 November 1985, lot 25 (see also under Edward Gibbon 'Amateur Drawings').
1798
Engraving by W. Ridley 1798 half length. Plate reissued as by Hopwood 1805, and two reduced anon. plates derived from it. Very near the Sayers etching of 1782.
Pencil drawing by William Grimaldi (Rev. A. Grimaldi, A Catalogue of Paintings, Drawings & Engravings by and after William Grimaldi, 1873, p 49, no.151).
Doubtful Portraits
Painting, three-quarter length, offered to NPG 1882 by C. H. Waters (Sir George Scharf's Trustees' Sketch Books, 4/66), later cut down to an irregular half length, and last sold Sotheby’s NY, 17 July 1997, lot 128.
Miniature attributed to E. Vaughan, 16 November 1976, lot 5 as ‘Thomas, 2nd Earl of Guildford’.
Drawings by J. S. Copley in the Boston Athenaeum, illus. Apollo, CII, 1975, p 469, as North, shows Brocklesby (J. D. Prown, John Singleton Copley, II, p 439, and fig.405 as Ralph Brocklesby; by C. Corbould, engraved C. T. Warren 1791, bust-length oval to left (The Senator); by John Downman in the Victoria and Albert Museum (P.4.1923; probably of his son).
Wax attributed to Samuel Percy, sold Christie’s, 11 December 1978, lot 135, appears too thin to be North and probably shows Frederick, 5th Earl of Guilford.
Engraving after O. Neale, bust length, somewhat resembling the head of North in the satire, The Colossus of the North, 1774 (M. D. George, British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, V, 5242).
This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, National Portrait Gallery, 2004, 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.