Mid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue
Thomas Kerrich (1748-1828), Cambridge University Librarian, antiquary and draughtsman
- Gallery portraits
- All known portraits
- Biography and References
1769
Drawing, self portrait, bust length. Sotheby’s, 8 April 1998, lot 15.
1774-75
Drawing, self portrait, see NPG 6531.
1815
Painting by H. P. Briggs. Formerly with Mrs F. M. Hartshorne. Engraved G. S. Facius 1815, P. Audinet 1831 (J. Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth century ... intended as a sequel to The Literary Anecdotes, 1817-31, VI, f.p.552). A replica is in Magdalene College, Cambridge (T. D. Atkinson, Cambridge Described & Illustrated, 1897, p 433, as 1795).
c.1820?
Etching by Mrs Dawson Turner, ‘somewhat older’ than in the Briggs portrait (see Walpole Society, XXI, 1933, pp 75-76; 'Rev Thomas Kerrich, F.S.A.', in Nichols J. Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth century ... intended as a sequel to The Literary Anecdotes, 1831, p 817).
Doubtful Portraits
A painting by Pompeo Batoni of c.1773-74 in a private collection, South Africa (illus. Prince Duleep Singh, Portraits in Norfolk Houses, I, f.p.168), which includes a letter inscribed A Monsieur T. Kerrich, Gentilhomme Anglais à Rome, must show Thomas Kerrich (d. 1809) of Geldeston Hall, Norfolk, although it has been identified as the antiquarian (cf. A. M. Clark, ed. E. P. Bowron, Pompeo Batoni, 1985, no.379; J. Ingamells, Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy 1701-1800, compiled from the Brinsley Ford Archive, 1997, p 574). It is implausible that a travelling academic, subsequently described as being of ‘small fortune’, should have been able to sit to Batoni in Rome, and it was presumably Kerrich of Geldeston who met Lord Coke in Turin in 1772 (see Coke of Norfolk and his Friends, 1908, I, pp 104, 110-14). I am grateful to Lady Wedgwood who first raised this important question of identity.
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.
Drawing, self portrait, bust length. Sotheby’s, 8 April 1998, lot 15.
1774-75
Drawing, self portrait, see NPG 6531.
1815
Painting by H. P. Briggs. Formerly with Mrs F. M. Hartshorne. Engraved G. S. Facius 1815, P. Audinet 1831 (J. Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth century ... intended as a sequel to The Literary Anecdotes, 1817-31, VI, f.p.552). A replica is in Magdalene College, Cambridge (T. D. Atkinson, Cambridge Described & Illustrated, 1897, p 433, as 1795).
c.1820?
Etching by Mrs Dawson Turner, ‘somewhat older’ than in the Briggs portrait (see Walpole Society, XXI, 1933, pp 75-76; 'Rev Thomas Kerrich, F.S.A.', in Nichols J. Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth century ... intended as a sequel to The Literary Anecdotes, 1831, p 817).
Doubtful Portraits
A painting by Pompeo Batoni of c.1773-74 in a private collection, South Africa (illus. Prince Duleep Singh, Portraits in Norfolk Houses, I, f.p.168), which includes a letter inscribed A Monsieur T. Kerrich, Gentilhomme Anglais à Rome, must show Thomas Kerrich (d. 1809) of Geldeston Hall, Norfolk, although it has been identified as the antiquarian (cf. A. M. Clark, ed. E. P. Bowron, Pompeo Batoni, 1985, no.379; J. Ingamells, Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy 1701-1800, compiled from the Brinsley Ford Archive, 1997, p 574). It is implausible that a travelling academic, subsequently described as being of ‘small fortune’, should have been able to sit to Batoni in Rome, and it was presumably Kerrich of Geldeston who met Lord Coke in Turin in 1772 (see Coke of Norfolk and his Friends, 1908, I, pp 104, 110-14). I am grateful to Lady Wedgwood who first raised this important question of identity.
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.