Later Stuart Portraits Catalogue

Matthew Prior (1664-1721), Poet, Ambassador to France and politician; MP for East Grinstead and Chief Secretary for Ireland

In Paris

1699-1701
Painting by Hyacinthe Rigaud, three-quarter-length standing, supporting an upright book with his left hand. Welbeck, from Prior’s collection 1721 (R. W. Goulding, Catalogue of Pictures belonging to … the Duke of Portland …, C. K. Adams ed., 1936, no.237, as inscribed and dated verso; H. Bunker Wright & H. C. Montgomery, ‘The Art Collection of a Virtuoso in eighteenth-century England’, Art Bulletin, XXVII 1945, p 202, no.80). Engraved C. Duflos 1712 (bust-length; illus. F. Bickley, Life of Prior, 1914, f.p.). Prior sat in 1699 but the portrait was not completed until 1701 (J. Roman ed., Le livre de raison du peintre Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1919, pp 41, 43, 48, 64). The likeness was highly rated by Lord Harley who suggested Swift might have a copy taken by Jervas (R. W. Goulding, Catalogue of Pictures belonging to … the Duke of Portland …, C. K. Adams ed., 1936, p 90).
Versions at the Stationers’ Company (bust-length), Ickworth (oval), Mapledurham and sold Tennants, Leyburn, 5-6 July 2007, lot 1167 (attributed to Richardson). Miniature copies at Welbeck by Alexander Souville 1713 (R. W. Goulding, ‘The Welbeck Abbey Miniatures’, Wal. Soc., IV, 1916, no.190, pl.xix) and by Charles Boit in enamel, left by Prior to Lord Harley’s daughter Margaret (W. Nisser, Michael Dahl, 1927, cat. p 116, no.30; R. W. Goulding, ‘The Welbeck Abbey Miniatures’, Wal. Soc., IV, 1916, no.193).

An unspecified and untraced miniature in a looking-glass case lined with silver, given by Prior to his mistress, Anne Durham, was bought from her by Lord Harley (H. Bunker Wright & H. C. Montgomery, ‘The Art Collection of a Virtuoso in eighteenth-century England’, Art Bulletin, XXVII, 1945, p 200, under no.40).

1699
Crayon drawing by Charles Jervas, half-length. Welbeck. ‘Gervais, Mr Prior’s head in Crayons, done at Paris, 1699’, from Prior’s collection (H. Bunker Wright & H. C. Montgomery, ‘The Art Collection of a Virtuoso in eighteenth-century England’, Art Bulletin, XXVII, 1945, p 200, no.41; R. W. Goulding, Catalogue of Pictures belonging to … the Duke of Portland …, C. K. Adams ed., 1936, no.854). Exhibited British Portraits, RA, 1956, no.578. The head in this drawing was the basis for the three-quarter-length painting below.

Painting variously ascribed to Charles Jervas or Peter Combes, or both (H. Bunker Wright & H. C. Montgomery, ‘The Art Collection of a Virtuoso in eighteenth-century England’, Art Bulletin, XXVII, 1945, p 200, no.46). Untraced; given by Lord Harley (2nd Earl of Oxford) 1721 to Prior’s secretary, Adrian Drift; Lord Hardwicke; Christie’s, 1 June 1897, lot 388. Exhibited Second Special Exhibition of National Portraits ( ... William and Mary to MDCCC), South Kensington, 1867, no.138 lent Lord Hardwicke, the book then said to be titled Traités. Engraved F. Engleheart 1820 from a drawing by J. Thurston (‘From a Picture by Richardson in the Collection of the Right Honorable the Earl of Hardwicke’).

1713-14
Painting by A.-S. Belle, three-quarter-length seated to left wearing French Court dress as a Minister Plenipotentiary, left hand on chair arm, right hand holding paper inscribed Au Roy Très-Chrétien. St John’s College, Cambridge, bequeathed by Prior; said to have been commissioned by Louis XIV (H. Bunker Wright & H. C. Montgomery, ‘The Art Collection of a Virtuoso in eighteenth-century England’, Art Bulletin, XXVII, 1945, p 198, no.4; illus. Connoisseur, CXL, 1957, p 234). A copy at Castle Ashby, perhaps the copy by Jan Van der Vaart 1721 made for Mr & Mrs Caesar (R. W. Goulding, Catalogue of Pictures belonging to … the Duke of Portland …, C. K. Adams ed., 1936, p 382, no.2ii).

1714
Bust by Antoine Coysevox, said to have been given by Louis XIV to Prior (see H. Bunker Wright & H. C. Montgomery, ‘The Art Collection of a Virtuoso in eighteenth-century England’, Art Bulletin, XXVII, 1945, p 199, no.17). Westminster Abbey, part of his monument erected in 1721 designed by James Gibbs. Gibbs also commissioned a copy of the bust by Richard Dickenson ‘after his own fancy, the head is the same, but the other part is less, and in lieu of the Cap, Mr Dickenson has put short hair a la romaine, which has the effect as to show a greater likeness of Mr Prior’s face, and is more in the manner of the Ancient Bustos’ (H. Bunker Wright & H. C. Montgomery, ‘The Art Collection of a Virtuoso in eighteenth-century England’, Art Bulletin, XXVII, 1945, p 199, no.17); this remains untraced.

In London

1700
Painting by Godfrey Kneller, three-quarter-length standing, own short hair, holding an upright book with his left hand. Trinity College, Cambridge, presented anonymously 1908 (J. D. Stewart, Godfrey Kneller, 1983, no.590, pls 33, 34b). Engraved J. Faber II 1728 (J. Chaloner Smith, British Mezzotinto Portraits, 298) when in the collection of the 2nd Earl of Halifax. Exhibited Sir Godfrey Kneller, NPG, 1971, no.80.
A kit-cat version sold Sotheby’s, 8 November 1995, lot 39, from the Mildmay collection (cf. R. W. Goulding, Catalogue of Pictures belonging to … the Duke of Portland …, C. K. Adams ed., 1936, p 383, no.5). Small half-length copies (without hands) in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Dyce, no.64; oval), possibly from the Strawberry Hill sale, 21st day, 18 May 1842, lot 103, and in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (2537). Two drawings from the Kneller pattern are in the British Museum: by Jonathan Richardson (bust-length, without wig; 1885.0509. 1898) and by Edward Byng (E. Croft-Murray & P. Hulton, British Museum, Catalogue of British Drawings: XVI and XVII centuries, 1960, p 221; 1897.8.13.5; Byng 4:f.32r).

1713
Painting by Michael Dahl, see NPG 3682.

1718
Painting by Jonathan Richardson, see under NPG 91.

c.1718
Painting by Michael Dahl, standing three-quarter-length, wearing hat, open-necked shirt and unbuttoned coat, his left hand resting on a table, his right supporting an upright volume titled Spencers Works. Private collection (Sir George Scharf’s Sketch Books, 55:72, 1859; Sir George Scharf’s Sketch Books, 55A:77, 1862; W. Nisser, Michael Dahl, 1927, cat. p 37, no.120b; Wimpole 1936, p 383, no.4i; C. J. Phillips, History of the Sackville Family, 1929, II, pp 405, 440). A miniature bust-length copy attributed to Bernard Lens III, dated 1718, sold Sotheby’s, 28 July 1975, lot 31 (wearing a red turban and a pink jacket over white vest), and a half-length coloured drawing copy by Ozias Humphry, signed and dated 1783, in the British Museum (1909-3-3-1).

c.1720?
Two unattributed medals, a medallion head lettered NEC ELATUS NEC DEJECTUS and a bust in relief with hat, derived from the Richardson head (Medallic Illustrations of The History of Great Britain and Ireland, British Museum, cxlv/4 & 5 as probably executed within Prior’s lifetime).

1721
A drawing by James Thornhill, probably preparatory for his projected decoration of the Great Hall at Wimpole, includes the figure of Dahl painting Prior as a seated three-quarter-length, apparently wearing a wig, but no such portrait survives. Versions in the Art Institute of Chicago and Dulwich Picture Gallery (Apollo, CXXII, 1985, p 212; J. Ingamells, Dulwich Picture Gallery Collections, 2008, p 250).

c.1721
Marble bust by Michael Rysbrack, formerly Alston Park, from Lord Harley (2nd Earl of Oxford); his sale 4th day, 11 March 1742, lot 28 unattributed, bought Lord Halifax; James West; his sale 1772, removed to West’s country estate at Alston Park until 1991 (R. Gunnis, Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851, 1968, p 335).

Posthumous
1740s
Bronzed plaster bust by Henry Cheere. York Art Gallery, from Kirkleatham (T. Friedman & T. Clifford, The Man at Hyde Park Corner, exhibition catalogue, Temple Newsam, Leeds, and Marble Hill, Twickenham, 1974, no.57, pl.18); a reduced copy of the Coysevox bust. A lead version illus. Esdaile, Roubiliac, 1928, pl.xii. Copied by Hoskins and Oliver (see below).

c.1770-75
A set of library busts including Prior by Richard Parker was at Ashburnham c.1770 (R. Gunnis, Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851, 1968, p 291). A bust of Prior by Peter Vannini was sold in 1770 (R. Gunnis, Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851, 1968, p 408). Hoskins and Oliver modelled a bust of Prior for Wedgwood c.1775 (R. Reilly, Wedgwood, 1989, I, p 458, pl.655; T. Friedman & T. Clifford, The Man at Hyde Park Corner, exhibition catalogue, Temple Newsam, Leeds, and Marble Hill, Twickenham, 1974, app.H), following the Cheere pattern.

c.1775-1800
A Staffordshire earthenware bust was produced in various media between 1775 and c.1800 (illus. Connoisseur, CLXV, 1967, p 53, figs 3-4; T. Friedman & T. Clifford, The Man at Hyde Park Corner, exhibition catalogue, Temple Newsam, Leeds, and Marble Hill, Twickenham, 1974, no.59, pl.20). A statuette and busts of three sizes by Charles Harris were being offered from stock c.1790 (Catalogue of Statues, Bas Reliefs, Bustos, &c. of Charles Harris, statuary, Opposite to the new Church in the Strand, LONDON, n.d.).

before 1781
Ceiling medallion painted by Biagio Rebecca at Berrington Hall, the head derived from the Richardson pattern (E. Croft-Murray, Decorative Painting in England, II, The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, 1970, p 258b).

Doubtful Portraits
Two paintings attributed to Jonathan Richardson, seated three-quarter-length at table; Wimpole (R. W. Goulding, Catalogue of Pictures belonging to … the Duke of Portland …, C. K. Adams ed., 1936, p 383; illus. Country Life, cxlii, 1967, p 1471), and a three-quarter-length seated at table with an open book, inscribed verso with sitter’s and artist’s names and dates; exhibited Oxford Portraits, Illustrated catalogue of a loan exhibition of Portraits of English historical personages who died between 1625 and 1714, exhibited in the Examination Schools, Oxford, 1906, no.15 lent by the Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History, Christ Church, Oxford (Oxford Portraits, Illustrated catalogue of a loan exhibition of Portraits of English historical personages who died between 1625 and 1714, exhibited in the Examination Schools, Oxford 1906, no.15 illus.; R. W. Goulding, Catalogue of Pictures belonging to … the Duke of Portland …, C. K. Adams ed., 1936, p 383, no.7).

Miniature attributed to either Bernard Lens III or Christian Richter, Buccleuch collection (illus. G. C. Williamson, The History of Portrait Miniatures, 1904, I, pl.lv, f.p.100; S. Lloyd, Portrait Miniatures in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch, 1996, no.65).

The drawing by Jonathan Richardson, head with cap, Tate Britain (Oppé collection), ex Wellesley sale, 4th day, 1 July 1920, lot 657 as of Prior, is a self portrait.



This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685-1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, 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.