Mid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue

Sir Thomas Robinson, 1st Bt (circa 1702-1777), Colonial governor and amateur architect

[Caveat: Sir Thomas (‘Short Sir Thomas’) Robinson (1695-1770), KB, Baron Grantham 1761; see J. Kerslake, National Portrait Gallery, Early Georgian Portraits, I, pp 103-04]

1729
Painting by William Hogarth, The Beggars Opera, Yale Center for British Art (B1981.25.349; illus. Age of Hogarth, Tate, 1988, p 80); in which Walpole identified Robinson as the tall man standing on the left wearing a blue coat with gold trimming (Paulson, Hogarth, 1971, I, pp 184, 527n23).

1730
Anon. Italian ivory relief, draped bust all’antica. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (WA 1996.384; illus. Annual Report 1995-96, pl.VI).

Marble bust by Filippo della Valle, draped all’antica. Westminster Abbey. Possibly carved from a model by Edme Bouchardon; it stands on his monument alongside a bust of his wife, Lady Lechmere, made by Bouchardon in Rome. His Will had stipulated that the ‘the fine busts made by Bouchardon and Philippo della Valle at Rome in [1730] of Lady Lechmere and myself’ should be placed on his monument (see A. Laing, Burlington Magazine, CXLII, 2000, p 755).

1750
Painting by Frans van der Mijn, see NPG 5275.

c.1761
Drawing by Paul Sandby, caricature, whole length with Lord Melcombe. Yale Center for British Art (B1975.4.1385; illus. Sandby, New Haven, 1985, p 45).

c.1775
Anon. caricature etching, three-quarter length standing.

Doubtful Portraits
Miniature, manner of Bernard Lens, Christie’s South Kensington, 1 October 1988, lot 58.



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.