Later Stuart Portraits Catalogue
Joseph Addison (1672-1719), Essayist and poet
- Gallery portraits
- All known portraits
- Biography and References
c.1710
Miniature by C. F. Zincke. Royal Collection (R. J. B. Walker, The eighteenth and early nineteenth century Miniatures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, 1992, p 33, no.65).
c.1711-12
Painting by James Thornhill, a conversation piece showing Addison on the left, Andrew Quick (who commissioned the portrait), the 1st Earl of Godolphin, James Thornhill and Richard Steele. Private collection (illus. D. H. Solkin, Painting for Money, 1994, pp 41-47, 280 n39).
c.1712
Painting by Godfrey Kneller, see NPG 3193.
1715
Painting by Charles Jervas, three-quarter-length standing, right hand at breast, left hand on table which bears a paper dated 1714. Knole (G. Scharf, ‘Notes on the Principal Portraits of J. Addison’, in Bloxam’s Register of the ... Presidents ... of Magdalen College, Oxford, VI, 1879, no.1; C. J. Phillips, History of the Sackville Family, 1929, II, p 433). Version from Bilton Hall (G. Scharf, ‘Notes on the Principal Portraits of J. Addison’, in Bloxam’s Register of the ... Presidents ... of Magdalen College, Oxford, VI, 1879, no.2; Christie’s, 25 June 1898, lot 15) with Sir James Graham, Norton Conyers, 1983. A half-length version recorded in a private collection. Pope recorded Addison sitting to Jervas in 1715 (letter of 7 April 1715; Corr., I, 1956, p 290).
Addison had met Jervas in Italy in 1701 finding him making ‘very great improvements, and tis thought he will be an extraordinary artist’ (Letters, 2 July 1701). A ‘head half len. of Mr Addison by Jervis - bought by Mr Theobalds’ was in the Halifax sale, 1st day, 6 March 1740, lot 17 [sic] (G. Vertue, Notebooks, Wal. Soc., XXIV, 1936, p 166). Other portraits described as Addison by Jervas were in the Bessborough sales, Christie’s, 7 February 1801, lot 6, and 10-11 July 1850, lot 177.
c.1715
Painting by Godfrey Kneller, three-quarter-length standing to left, right hand extended, left hand on hip, signed. P. Smithers, from Bruce of Braeburn (illus. P. Smithers, Joseph Addison, 1968, front.).
1716
Painting by Godfrey Kneller, three-quarter-length standing to left, right hand tucked in coat, paper on table inscribed: To/The Honorable Joseph Addison Esq, signed and dated. J. M. Osborn collection, Yale University library, from Northwick Park (G. Scharf, ‘Notes on the Principal Portraits of J. Addison’, in Bloxam’s Register of the ... Presidents ... of Magdalen College, Oxford, VI, 1879, no.8; J. D. Stewart, Godfrey Kneller, 1983, no.25; illus. Joseph Spence, Observations, Anecdotes, and Characters of Books and Men, collected from conversation, ed. J. M. Osborn, 1966, f.p.64; P. Smithers, Addison, 1968, f.p.384). Engraved G. Vertue 1720 (with buttons instead of eyelets and with arms: erm. on a bend gu. three annulets or, a chief az. charged with three leopards’ heads of the third; G. Scharf, ‘Notes on the Principal Portraits of J. Addison’, in Bloxam’s Register of the ... Presidents ... of Magdalen College, Oxford, VI, 1879, no.11; D. Alexander, ‘George Vertue as an Engraver’, Wal. Soc., LXX, 2008, no.324); Vertue’s preliminary drawing was in the Wellesley sale, Sotheby’s, 5th day, 2 July 1920, lot 801.
A bust-length copy in oils of Vertue’s plate is in the Uffizi, Florence (IC8), acquired in 1722.
c.1717
Painting attributed to Jonathan Richardson, three-quarter-length standing by table, paper in right hand inscribed: To Joseph Addison one of His Majesty’s principal Secretaries of State, left hand tucked in coat. Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, from Christie’s, 16 June 1967, lot 82. A half-length copy by Thomas Holland 1788 at Hartlebury, described as ‘after C. Verelst’ from the original then belonging to Harry Verelst, Aston Hall; exhibited A Candidate for Praise, York, 1973, no.109.
1719
Painting by Michael Dahl, see NPG 714.
c.1719
Miniature by C. F. Zincke. Sotheby’s, Milan, 12-13 November 2003, lot 2 inscribed verso. Showing the heavy features of the Dahl portrait NPG 714.
Painting attributed to Jonathan Richardson, formerly with the Marquess of Buckingham; Stowe sale, 23rd day, 14 September 1848, lot 300; presented by the sitter to Lord Wharton. Engraved C. Picart 1806 for Bowles’ edition of Pope’s Works, showing the heavy features of the Dahl portrait NPG 714.
Unattributed pastel, with H. C. Dent 1876 (Sir George Scharf's Trustees' Sketch Books, 23:2; G. Scharf, ‘Notes on the Principal Portraits of J. Addison’, in Bloxam’s Register of the ... Presidents ... of Magdalen College, Oxford, VI, 1879, no.16); showing the heavy features of the Dahl portrait NPG 714.
Unattributed wax medallion in the Harcourt sale, 10 June 1993, lot 246.
Posthumous
c.1755
Bronzed plaster bust by John Cheere, short hair, open shirt, embroidered jacket, a drape round the shoulders. The model known in several versions differing in detail: 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.62, pl.19); Trinity College, Cambridge (M. Baker, ‘The Portrait Sculpture’ in D. McKetterick ed., The Making of the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge, 1995, pp 118, 132, pl.64 as c.1755-60) and Stourhead. A lead version was in the Bute sale, Christie’s, 2-3 July 1996, lot 189.
c.1790
Statuette and busts of three sizes by Charles Harris were offered from stock (Catalogue of Statues, Bas Reliefs, Bustos, &c. of Charles Harris, statuary, Opposite to the new Church in the Strand, London, n.d.).
History
A painted allegory by Donato Creti was one of a series of ‘monuments’ to recent ‘British Worthies, who were bright and shining Ornaments, to their Country’, commissioned by Owen MacSwinny c.1725-29. British Embassy, Rome (GAC 4529; E. Croft-Murray, Decorative Painting in England, II, The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries,1970, p 242, no.24).
Doubtful Portraits
Paintings by Benjamin Vandergucht, sold Sotheby’s, 10 June 1993, lot 866, from Nuneham (Catalogue of Pictures belonging to Lord Harcourt at Nuneham Park, 1806, p 17, as by ‘old Vandergucht’ after Kneller; Sir George Scharf's Sketch Books, 75:47; G. Scharf, ‘Notes on the Principal Portraits of J. Addison’, in Bloxam’s Register of the ... Presidents ... of Magdalen College, Oxford, VI, 1879, no.9; Harcourt Papers, III, p 252); by William Sonmans, with Viscount Davenport, from Christie’s, 26 June 1914, lot 31 (illus. W. Connely, Steele, 1934, p 106; P. Smithers, Joseph Addison, 1968, f.p.46).
Attributed to Jonathan Richardson, Althorp (K. J. Garlick, ‘A Catalogue of Pictures at Althorp’, Wal. Soc., XLV, 1976, no.547). Copied by H. P. Bone 1850, as ‘from the Kneller in the collection of Lord Spencer’, sold Sotheby’s, 5 July 1984, lot 68, and Christie’s, 17-18 March 1987, lot 45. Attributed to John Vanderbank, Raby Castle. Attributed to Kneller, Cirencester (Earl Bathurst, Catalogue of the Bathurst Collection …, 1908, pp 68-69, illus.; W. Nisser, Michael Dahl, 1927, cat. p.1, no.2a as Dahl).
Unattributed, Queen’s College, Oxford (G. Scharf, ‘Notes on the Principal Portraits of J. Addison’, in Bloxam’s Register of the ... Presidents ... of Magdalen College, Oxford, VI, 1879, no.7 as ‘one of considerable importance’; Mrs R. L. Poole, Catalogue of Portraits in the possession of the University, Colleges and City and County of Oxford, II, p 125, no.50; illus. Oxford Portraits, Illustrated catalogue of a loan exhibition of Portraits of English historical personages who died between 1714 and 1837, exhibited in the Examination Schools, Oxford, 1906, pl.1, no.4), bearing a signature once read as Du Pan; also attributed to Simon du Bois. Painting called Kneller, The Reconciliation of Steele and Addison, two half-length figures shaking hands, called Addison and Steele, to whom they bear a crude resemblance. Chetham’s Hospital, Manchester, presented early in the 19th century (illus. W. Connely, Steele, 1934, f.p.196, and see Country Life, LXXVI, 1934, p 225).
Miniature by C. F. Zincke 1704. Charles E. Lees sale, Bonham’s, 20 November 1997, lot 37.
Enamel by Charles Boit dated 1703, exhibited SKM 1865, no.2263, formerly in the collection of Lord Tweedmouth (W. Nisser, Michael Dahl, 1927, cat. p 121, no.1).
The Addison monument in Westminster Abbey by Richard Westmacott, erected in 1809, was copied from the figure of Sir Andrew Fontaine (see The Athenaeum, 1858, pp 722ff.; illus. M. Whinney, Sculpture in Britain 1530 to 1830, 1964, pl.170a), as was a portrait from Holland House once called Addison (Sir George Scharf's Sketch Books, 81:34; Holland House 1904, no.221; see Ilchester, The Home of the Hollands, 1937, pp 365-66).
An ivory bust by David Le Marchand, 1704-10, Detroit Institute of Arts (2003.1; illus. Burl. Mag., CXLIX, 2007, p 452); exhibited David le Marchand 1674-1726, no.79.
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.
Miniature by C. F. Zincke. Royal Collection (R. J. B. Walker, The eighteenth and early nineteenth century Miniatures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, 1992, p 33, no.65).
c.1711-12
Painting by James Thornhill, a conversation piece showing Addison on the left, Andrew Quick (who commissioned the portrait), the 1st Earl of Godolphin, James Thornhill and Richard Steele. Private collection (illus. D. H. Solkin, Painting for Money, 1994, pp 41-47, 280 n39).
c.1712
Painting by Godfrey Kneller, see NPG 3193.
1715
Painting by Charles Jervas, three-quarter-length standing, right hand at breast, left hand on table which bears a paper dated 1714. Knole (G. Scharf, ‘Notes on the Principal Portraits of J. Addison’, in Bloxam’s Register of the ... Presidents ... of Magdalen College, Oxford, VI, 1879, no.1; C. J. Phillips, History of the Sackville Family, 1929, II, p 433). Version from Bilton Hall (G. Scharf, ‘Notes on the Principal Portraits of J. Addison’, in Bloxam’s Register of the ... Presidents ... of Magdalen College, Oxford, VI, 1879, no.2; Christie’s, 25 June 1898, lot 15) with Sir James Graham, Norton Conyers, 1983. A half-length version recorded in a private collection. Pope recorded Addison sitting to Jervas in 1715 (letter of 7 April 1715; Corr., I, 1956, p 290).
Addison had met Jervas in Italy in 1701 finding him making ‘very great improvements, and tis thought he will be an extraordinary artist’ (Letters, 2 July 1701). A ‘head half len. of Mr Addison by Jervis - bought by Mr Theobalds’ was in the Halifax sale, 1st day, 6 March 1740, lot 17 [sic] (G. Vertue, Notebooks, Wal. Soc., XXIV, 1936, p 166). Other portraits described as Addison by Jervas were in the Bessborough sales, Christie’s, 7 February 1801, lot 6, and 10-11 July 1850, lot 177.
c.1715
Painting by Godfrey Kneller, three-quarter-length standing to left, right hand extended, left hand on hip, signed. P. Smithers, from Bruce of Braeburn (illus. P. Smithers, Joseph Addison, 1968, front.).
1716
Painting by Godfrey Kneller, three-quarter-length standing to left, right hand tucked in coat, paper on table inscribed: To/The Honorable Joseph Addison Esq, signed and dated. J. M. Osborn collection, Yale University library, from Northwick Park (G. Scharf, ‘Notes on the Principal Portraits of J. Addison’, in Bloxam’s Register of the ... Presidents ... of Magdalen College, Oxford, VI, 1879, no.8; J. D. Stewart, Godfrey Kneller, 1983, no.25; illus. Joseph Spence, Observations, Anecdotes, and Characters of Books and Men, collected from conversation, ed. J. M. Osborn, 1966, f.p.64; P. Smithers, Addison, 1968, f.p.384). Engraved G. Vertue 1720 (with buttons instead of eyelets and with arms: erm. on a bend gu. three annulets or, a chief az. charged with three leopards’ heads of the third; G. Scharf, ‘Notes on the Principal Portraits of J. Addison’, in Bloxam’s Register of the ... Presidents ... of Magdalen College, Oxford, VI, 1879, no.11; D. Alexander, ‘George Vertue as an Engraver’, Wal. Soc., LXX, 2008, no.324); Vertue’s preliminary drawing was in the Wellesley sale, Sotheby’s, 5th day, 2 July 1920, lot 801.
A bust-length copy in oils of Vertue’s plate is in the Uffizi, Florence (IC8), acquired in 1722.
c.1717
Painting attributed to Jonathan Richardson, three-quarter-length standing by table, paper in right hand inscribed: To Joseph Addison one of His Majesty’s principal Secretaries of State, left hand tucked in coat. Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, from Christie’s, 16 June 1967, lot 82. A half-length copy by Thomas Holland 1788 at Hartlebury, described as ‘after C. Verelst’ from the original then belonging to Harry Verelst, Aston Hall; exhibited A Candidate for Praise, York, 1973, no.109.
1719
Painting by Michael Dahl, see NPG 714.
c.1719
Miniature by C. F. Zincke. Sotheby’s, Milan, 12-13 November 2003, lot 2 inscribed verso. Showing the heavy features of the Dahl portrait NPG 714.
Painting attributed to Jonathan Richardson, formerly with the Marquess of Buckingham; Stowe sale, 23rd day, 14 September 1848, lot 300; presented by the sitter to Lord Wharton. Engraved C. Picart 1806 for Bowles’ edition of Pope’s Works, showing the heavy features of the Dahl portrait NPG 714.
Unattributed pastel, with H. C. Dent 1876 (Sir George Scharf's Trustees' Sketch Books, 23:2; G. Scharf, ‘Notes on the Principal Portraits of J. Addison’, in Bloxam’s Register of the ... Presidents ... of Magdalen College, Oxford, VI, 1879, no.16); showing the heavy features of the Dahl portrait NPG 714.
Unattributed wax medallion in the Harcourt sale, 10 June 1993, lot 246.
Posthumous
c.1755
Bronzed plaster bust by John Cheere, short hair, open shirt, embroidered jacket, a drape round the shoulders. The model known in several versions differing in detail: 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.62, pl.19); Trinity College, Cambridge (M. Baker, ‘The Portrait Sculpture’ in D. McKetterick ed., The Making of the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge, 1995, pp 118, 132, pl.64 as c.1755-60) and Stourhead. A lead version was in the Bute sale, Christie’s, 2-3 July 1996, lot 189.
c.1790
Statuette and busts of three sizes by Charles Harris were offered from stock (Catalogue of Statues, Bas Reliefs, Bustos, &c. of Charles Harris, statuary, Opposite to the new Church in the Strand, London, n.d.).
History
A painted allegory by Donato Creti was one of a series of ‘monuments’ to recent ‘British Worthies, who were bright and shining Ornaments, to their Country’, commissioned by Owen MacSwinny c.1725-29. British Embassy, Rome (GAC 4529; E. Croft-Murray, Decorative Painting in England, II, The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries,1970, p 242, no.24).
Doubtful Portraits
Paintings by Benjamin Vandergucht, sold Sotheby’s, 10 June 1993, lot 866, from Nuneham (Catalogue of Pictures belonging to Lord Harcourt at Nuneham Park, 1806, p 17, as by ‘old Vandergucht’ after Kneller; Sir George Scharf's Sketch Books, 75:47; G. Scharf, ‘Notes on the Principal Portraits of J. Addison’, in Bloxam’s Register of the ... Presidents ... of Magdalen College, Oxford, VI, 1879, no.9; Harcourt Papers, III, p 252); by William Sonmans, with Viscount Davenport, from Christie’s, 26 June 1914, lot 31 (illus. W. Connely, Steele, 1934, p 106; P. Smithers, Joseph Addison, 1968, f.p.46).
Attributed to Jonathan Richardson, Althorp (K. J. Garlick, ‘A Catalogue of Pictures at Althorp’, Wal. Soc., XLV, 1976, no.547). Copied by H. P. Bone 1850, as ‘from the Kneller in the collection of Lord Spencer’, sold Sotheby’s, 5 July 1984, lot 68, and Christie’s, 17-18 March 1987, lot 45. Attributed to John Vanderbank, Raby Castle. Attributed to Kneller, Cirencester (Earl Bathurst, Catalogue of the Bathurst Collection …, 1908, pp 68-69, illus.; W. Nisser, Michael Dahl, 1927, cat. p.1, no.2a as Dahl).
Unattributed, Queen’s College, Oxford (G. Scharf, ‘Notes on the Principal Portraits of J. Addison’, in Bloxam’s Register of the ... Presidents ... of Magdalen College, Oxford, VI, 1879, no.7 as ‘one of considerable importance’; Mrs R. L. Poole, Catalogue of Portraits in the possession of the University, Colleges and City and County of Oxford, II, p 125, no.50; illus. Oxford Portraits, Illustrated catalogue of a loan exhibition of Portraits of English historical personages who died between 1714 and 1837, exhibited in the Examination Schools, Oxford, 1906, pl.1, no.4), bearing a signature once read as Du Pan; also attributed to Simon du Bois. Painting called Kneller, The Reconciliation of Steele and Addison, two half-length figures shaking hands, called Addison and Steele, to whom they bear a crude resemblance. Chetham’s Hospital, Manchester, presented early in the 19th century (illus. W. Connely, Steele, 1934, f.p.196, and see Country Life, LXXVI, 1934, p 225).
Miniature by C. F. Zincke 1704. Charles E. Lees sale, Bonham’s, 20 November 1997, lot 37.
Enamel by Charles Boit dated 1703, exhibited SKM 1865, no.2263, formerly in the collection of Lord Tweedmouth (W. Nisser, Michael Dahl, 1927, cat. p 121, no.1).
The Addison monument in Westminster Abbey by Richard Westmacott, erected in 1809, was copied from the figure of Sir Andrew Fontaine (see The Athenaeum, 1858, pp 722ff.; illus. M. Whinney, Sculpture in Britain 1530 to 1830, 1964, pl.170a), as was a portrait from Holland House once called Addison (Sir George Scharf's Sketch Books, 81:34; Holland House 1904, no.221; see Ilchester, The Home of the Hollands, 1937, pp 365-66).
An ivory bust by David Le Marchand, 1704-10, Detroit Institute of Arts (2003.1; illus. Burl. Mag., CXLIX, 2007, p 452); exhibited David le Marchand 1674-1726, no.79.
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.