Regency Portraits Catalogue

Solomon Hirschel (1762-1842), Chief Rabbi in London

c.1802
NPG 1343 was painted by F. B. Barlin, a son of the Reader of the Chatham Synagogue and an Honorary Exhibitor at the RA, probably to celebrate Hirschel's appointment as Chief Rabbi.

A variant was engraved also by Holl but ascribed to Slater; this was published by Burnett & Justins in 1808 lettered: THE REV. SOLOMON HIRSCHELL: Chief Rabbi of the Germans and Polish Jews in England.

A comparable portrait by Barlin, of Raphael Meldola, Chief Rabbi of Spanish and Portuguese Jews in London 1805-28, is in Bevis Marks Synagogue (Alfred Rubens, Anglo-Jewish Portraits, 1935, p 70).

c.1811
Oil by Drummond, head and shoulders in fur hat and bands, engraved by Ridley 'from an Original Painting by Drummond' and published in The European Magazine, 2 April 1811.

1838
Bust by George Abbott exhibited RA 1838 (1334), perhaps that lent to the Anglo-Jewish Exhibition, V&A Museum, 1956 (141) by Messrs N. M. Rothschild & Sons.



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.