Early Victorian Portraits Catalogue

Sir William Molesworth, 8th Bt (1810-1855), Politician, First Commissioner of Works and Colonial Secretary

The following portraits of Molesworth are reproduced in Mrs Fawcett, Life of the Rt Hon Sir William Molesworth (1901); a study for 'The House of Commons, 1833' by Sir G. Hayter (see NPG 54), facing p 38; a silhouette of 1822, p 41; a drawing by R. P. Collier of 1835, facing p 239; an engraving by W. Walker of 1854, published Walker, 1856 (example in NPG), reproduced frontispiece; and a bronze relief by G. Frampton of 1899, formerly in St George's Free Library, Southwark, reproduced facing p 340. A water-colour by A. E. Chalon was exhibited RA, 1846 (1047); various caricature drawings by J. Doyle are in the British Museum; a drawing by W. R. Govel of 1846 is in the Rex Nan Kivell collection; a drawing of Molesworth and his friends was reproduced in The Gentlewoman (October 1904); a miniature by B. R. Green was exhibited RA, 1853 (773) and another by Jacques of 1831 was in the Special Exhibition of Portrait Miniatures, South Kensington Museum, 1865 (2207); a marble bust by W. Behnes of 1843 is in the Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, reproduced Mrs Fawcett, facing p 240, and another by the same sculptor of 1842 is in the Reform Club, London; one of the busts was presumably that exhibited RA, 1842 (1355 a marble bust by A. Hone was exhibited RA, 1837 (1211); a model for a statue by H. H. Armstead was exhibited RA, 1874 (1573); an engraving was published Notices of the Late Sir William Molesworth (1857), frontispiece, and another of 1854 is reproduced Selected Speeches of Sir William Molesworth, edited by H. E. Egerton (1903), frontispiece; an engraving by D. Maclise was published Fraser's Magazine, XVII (1838), facing 338, as no.80 of Maclise's 'Gallery of Illustrious Literary Characters'; there is an anonymous engraving and an anonymous caricature (examples in NPG); woodcuts were published ILN, VII (1845), 176, XVIII (1851), 342, after a photograph by Kilburn, and XXVII (1855), 489, after a photograph by B. E. Duppa.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Ormond, Early Victorian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1973, 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.