Regency Portraits Catalogue

Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth (1757-1833), Admiral

A good account of Lord Exmouth's portraiture is by Arthur Pinhey in The Mariner's Mirror, XXII, 1936, pp 316-23. The family residence, Canonteign Devonshire, was burnt down in 1906 and rebuilt in 1912, but most of the portraits were saved.

1791 or 1798
Miniature by Smart was exhibited several times 1879-91 by Jeffery Whitehead, but identity doubtful.

c.1794
Oil by Opie listed in Ada Earland, John Opie and his Circle, 1911, p 275 as in Sir Archibald Orr-Ewing's collection.

c.1801
Stipple engraving by Chapman, published 1 December 1801 but considered by Arthur Pinhey in The Mariner's Mirror, XXII, 1936, p 322 to be probably a work of pure imagination.

1804
Oil by Northcote (NPG 140).

1814
Marble bust by Thorwaldsen at Canonteign, plaster model in Copenhagen.

c.1815
Two oils by Lawrence in family collection:
(1) Head and shoulders formerly in the Locker collection at Greenwich, mezzotint by Turner 1815 without Ribbon and Star of GCB (Alfred Whitman, Charles Turner, 1907, 190);
(2) Three-quarter-length with telescope painted probably in 1815 or later; whole-length copy by Lane is in Crown Estate Commissioners' collection (formerly United Service Club) and another copy is still with the family (Kenneth Garlick, ‘Catalogue of Paintings, Drawings and Pastels of Sir Thomas Lawrence’ in Walpole Society Journal, XXXIX, 1964, 77-8).

1816-17
Oil by Drummond in the Albert Memorial Museum Exeter, engraved by H. Meyer for The European Magazine, 1 September 1817 and exhibited RA 1822 (214); an oil sketch was at Up-Ottery (Lord Sidmouth) in 1936.

1817-20
Silhouette by Miers, plaster heightened with gold, Christie's 23 January 1973 (4).

1817
Oil by Beechey in the Ironmongers' Hall was exhibited RA 1817 (200), whole-length standing on quarterdeck of the Queen Charlotte at the Bombardment of Algiers; a replica is in the Old India Office Collection presented by Lord Hardwicke who had served as a midshipman in the action; mezzotint by C. Turner 1818 (Alfred Whitman, Charles Turner, 1907, 189).

1819
Oil by Owen in National Maritime Museum, exhibited RA 1819 (352) and presented to Greenwich Hospital by J. W. Croker in 1833.

1820
Oil by Hayter (NPG 999) for which a sketch probably exists.

Undated
Oil by Alleyne at Sotheby's 2 August 1972 (42), as a young man but identity doubtful.
Drawing by Chinnery at Christie's 5 March 1974 (78), as a slim young man brandishing a sword, catalogued as Exmouth but probably his eldest son; a similar drawing of the second son, Fleetwood Pellew, is in the National Maritime Museum and both were intended to represent the boat attack at Batavia in 1806 (The Mariner's Mirror, 1936, p 322); the drawing is inscribed: 'We had a finished drawing by Chinnery of Sir - Pellew which we gave to him when he became Ld Exmouth and this is Chinnery's sketch for that drawing'. The initial is doubtful and could be either E (Edward) or F but hardly P (Pownoll, the second Viscount).

Posthumous
1846
Marble statue by MacDowell at Greenwich exhibited RA 1846 (1403).



This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Walker, Regency Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, 1985, 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.